


Oh no

by Go_get_Jakes_gun



Series: Oh no [1]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: AU, BAMF!Graves, But Mostly Hurt, Dark Newt Scamander, Forgiving!Graves, Foul Language, HE FLIPPING JUST DID THAT!!, Hurt/Comfort, I can't believe he just did that, I suck at writing, Kidnapping, M/M, Manipulative!Graves, Miscarriage, Mpreg, Oh no oh no ohnononononono, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape, Sadness, Sexual elements but doesn't really go into details, Stockholm Syndrome, because after a while the person getting raped gets into it, but its kinda fucked up, but not in a Stockholm syndrome-y kind of way, fouler than you'll find in most fics, identity theft, incarceration, lots of sadness, manipulative!grindelwald, more like a long term dub con, omg, poor Newt, really foul, save your time and read something else, seriously, stupid author who can't tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 12:43:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 48
Words: 56,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10991181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go_get_Jakes_gun/pseuds/Go_get_Jakes_gun
Summary: ^^ title subject to eventual change.--"Tell me, Mr. Scamander." Graves mouthed along Newt's ear, sending shivers up the younger man's spine, "Does Grindelwald know that his prized slut is pregnant with my child?"





	1. Chapter 1

Graves groaned, waking up. One moment he was just casually strolling outside the Woolworth building, about to disapparate to his apartment, the next he was, well, here. Of course, he didn’t really know where ‘here’ was, per say. Given the darkness and the feeling of heavy bricks under him, he would say that he was… in jail? Psh, he was, like, 25% sure that he hadn’t done anything recently to warrant an arrest.

His mind quickly buzzed for ways to get out. He tried a bit of wandlless magic, but was rewarded with a burning sensation by his wrists. He might have guessed that it wouldn’t be that easy to get out of this mess. Suddenly, the lights flickered on. He called out but was not rewarded with a reply. Either everyone in this… block? Was asleep or he was alone in here. He sighed, setting his head down. He couldn’t tell the time, but assuming it hadn’t been too long since he’d been knocked unconscious, this would be around about the time that he was supposed to go to sleep.

.

The next time he woke up he heard some voices. Alright then, he guessed the last time he’d called out everyone in the vicinity had- probably- been asleep.

“Hello?” he called out.

“Yeah?” two or three men called back.

“Um, can someone please tell me where I am?”

“You’re in Nurmengard, pal.”

Dread set in him. “I-I’m, uh, I’m where?”

“Nurmengard. Gell-o’s prison.”

“Gell-o?”

“Yeah, you know. Grindelwald.”

Right, he’d heard stories about this place. It was rumored to be somewhere in Germany near Nuremburg. 

“How long was I out?”

“How would we know that?”

“How long’ve you guys been here?”

The replies that followed ranged anywhere between 4 years ago and last Tuesday.

A door along the end of the hallway opened. He heard footsteps approaching, footsteps that stopped right outside of his cell.

A man wearing brown-grey pants, a white shirt, a golden vest and a black bowtie stood just beyond the bars. He had light brown-gold hair with just the slightest tinge of red. He was young and incredibly handsome, and had this been any other type of scenario, Graves likely would have asked him out to coffee sometime.

But at the moment, it was clear that he was one of the people in charge of keeping him captive.

“Hello, Mr. Graves,” the man smiled, in a sort of smug-y-sinister-y kind of way.


	2. Chapter 2

It was whilst being led through halls and even more halls that Graves finally managed to place where he knew the boy from.

 

During the First World War, he and a group of friends had, with some forged papers, enlisted in the British army. It was there that he’d met the man with whom this one likely shared blood, Theseus Scamander.

 

Of course, Theseus’s hair was considerably a darker shade of brown than the man leading him down these dark and gloomy halls, and his eyes more of a bluey-grey than this man’s hazel- and yet somehow Theseus’s eyes looked a hell of a lot friendlier, even after watching multiple friends _die,_ than the man he was walking with.

 

Theseus was also of a stronger build and had peachier skin compared to the pale, pale white of the man in front of him. Seriously though, had the man ever been outside? And compared to Theseus’s more… rugged handsomeness, this man had more of a… delicate beauty, definitely the kind of person he’d shove face-first into his unnecessarily luxurious bed and ravish for hours and hours.

 

Yet despite his features and hair being more or less the same, Percival Graves still had a hard time believing that the man in front of him could possibly be the man that Theseus had fondly shown him pictures of, Newt Scamander, Theseus’s little brother, the aspiring Magizoologist.

 

But at the same time, it made sense. About three years into the war, the Ministry of Magic had broken up their little ‘dragon-training experiment’ down on the Eastern front, because the dragons had  tried to eat all of the people tasked with managing them- save, of course, for Newt who was the only one the dragons would listen to.

 

The men were told to pack up and come home, but they were supposed to fly back on broomsticks so that they could escort the dragons (Newt, of course, being in charge). But as they were leaving they noticed a lack of, well, Newt, and no one had ever heard from him since.

 

Staring at the man’s back, Graves could think of at least one reason why. One reason based on circumstantial evidence that would bring closure to the Scamander family as they could finally figure out what had happened to their beloved son, the youngest member of their family. Simply, he’d gone dark side.

 

Graves had to give Grindelwald props, if he could make a man whom according to Theseus was nothing but good and pure go corrupt, then the title of Dark Lord definitely suited him.

 

Finally, the walking stopped and they entered a room. It seemed to be an interrogation room from the looks of things, and by things he meant the dim lights, the two chairs and the desk.

 

Newt took a seat on a comfy chair with an arm rest made of what appeared to be teak wood… Percival got the not-so-comfortable plastic chair opposite him.

 

Percival was no fool. As an interrogation expert he knew full well what the man’s tactic was. Make him uncomfortable and hope that he’ll give away whatever information that Grindelwald might want.

 

Haha, what hope could a rookie like Scamander have against a pro like him?

 

“Now then, Director Graves,” Newt said coolly. “I would like to start with a few questions.”

 

“Alright,” Percival said, deciding to play along.

 

“How old are you?”

 

“Ninety-seven,” he deadpanned.

 

Newt frowned, “ _Right_ , well, I see that the usual method isn’t going to work with you. However, there are _other_ ways, of cou-”

 

“Just cut to the chase, Scamander,” Graves interrupted, the look of shock and disbelief on Newt’s face almost making up for his current state of captivity.

 

“W-well, now, Mr. Graves, I-uh, I guess.” There was a knock on the door.

 

Percival turned his head and his eyes widened. Unlike at the precinct, there was no one-way mirror, no, just your simple glass window, a sickeningly honest feature of this sickeningly cliché interrogation room.

 

And who would stare back at him other than the pale-haired, pale-eyed, moustached form of Gellert Grindelwald himself.

 

He made a gesture with his head and Newt got up. “Um, one moment please, Mr. Graves.”

 

Newt quickly scampered out of the room. Graves watched, studying his enemy.

 

Grindelwald said something. Newt said something, making- what would’ve been considered cute in any other situation- hand gestures to the man. Grindelwald contemplated for a moment and said something else. Newt nodded. Percival thought for sure that it was over. Newt was reaching for the door handle, turning himself to slide in, when Percival watched on in horror as Grindelwald pushed Newt against the wall on the right of them and started ravishing his mouth in a way that is unsuitable for this work’s rating.

 

What made it even more odd was that Newt, for some reason, kissed the grossly unattractive man _back_.

 

Percival froze. It all made sense now. Grindelwald hadn’t needed to seduce Newt to the dark side, he’d simply needed to seduce the _way_ younger man into his bed chambers, because surely he must’ve been seriously good in bed to bag that hot piece of- no.

 

No, no, _nonono!_ First of all, he was that man’s captive, and secondly, even if they weren’t in this situation, that was one of his closest friends’ baby brother. Either way, there was no way that he could bang the man and walk out of the situation a happy man. ~~(Granted, he seemed to have a penchant for older men)~~

Grindelwald was getting _super_ frisky by this point and Newt had to push him off. He said something, and Grindelwald nodded and left, but not before Newt planted a quick kiss to his lips. _Eurgh!_

 

Newt entered the interrogation room once more.

 

“Now, where were we?”

 

“Listen, Newt,” once more with the shock, “You can go and tell that smug bastard that if he wants to question me he’s going to have to come in here and do it his damned bloody se-”

 

Newt’s wand was pointed at him, “Legilimens,” he incanted. Percival froze as he felt his memories being invaded quickly and desperately he cut the chain off, but even as Newt looked a little dazed from his trip down, well, Percy’s memory lane, he could tell from that growing smile that he’d gotten everything that he needed.

 

“We’ll continue tomorrow, Mr. Graves,” he said, getting out of his chair, a finger accidentally brushing against Percival as he passed him, sending an electric shock up his spine. Yup, he really was in deep shit.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Arms still bound he paced around in his cell. Thankfully _his_ trip down memory lane hadn’t been too bad. He hadn’t leaked any of MACUSA’s secrets to Scamander, just a few early childhood memories.

.

 

His next interrogation was a little different. Why? Because he couldn’t say anything but the truth for some odd reason. Newt smiled, ecstatically. It took him longer than he cared to admit to realize that the food that the prison guard had brought him must have been laced with Veritaserum.  
  
On the bright side, though, Newt hadn’t asked him anything yet about MACUSA, likely testing to see if the potion worked or not. He had told him his age, thirty-seven, his closest friends, what he liked to eat, what he did for fun, his family members names and how close he was to each of them, the location of his apartment- though he did frown a little when Newt asked him if he _really_ wore what he was wearing to work every day.

 

The man was scribbling these notes down. More questions. What coffee did he like? What were his relationships with his employees? How long had he been the Director of Magical Security? What did he like most about being the Director of Magical Security? What was his relationship like with the President? Was he seeing anyone? What cases had he been working on recently? Of course, even before they came he knew that they were bound to get more and more invasive.

 

“Are you a morning person or a night person? What’s your sexual orientation”- he’d slammed his mouth shut at that one before a quirk of the eyebrow from Newt and the magic of the spell had him blurting out “Pan.”

 

Newt hummed, “Good, good. Now, one last question. The man leaned forward in his chair his face a breath away from Graves’s.

 

“Do you find me attractive, Director?”

 

Graves opened his mouth and did his best to muffle the sound he knew he was going to make, but that didn’t help things very much.

 

“Very,” he replied.

 

Newt smiled in a way that scared Graves quite a bit.

 

“Good,” he hummed, placing his notepad in his vest, “Well, that’s all for today, Mr. Graves, thank you for your cooperation.”

 

_What cooperation!? You forced everything out of me with a bloody potion!_

Graves simply nodded and allowed himself to be escorted back to his prison cell.

 

He’d since found out that he’d been imprisoned in what the prisoners referred to as the ‘magic block’ aka the block where all the witches and wizards were held. He sometimes heard screams when they were on their way to the interrogation unit.

 

Eventually, as time went by, he’d asked Newt about it. Newt had smiled wildly and whilst most people wouldn’t divulge secrets that could get them landed in prison with someone who put people in prison, Newt seemed oddly thrilled about it.

 

“Those are where they keep the muggles,” he smiled. “It’s how the recruits practice their curses and such.”

 

Earlier, Graves would have been shocked to hear this coming from Theseus Scamander’s little brother, but as time had passed he’d come to an understanding that despite the unlikelihood of it, it was the truth. He’d understood around the same time that he’d developed a hatred for the man.

 

Honestly though, to sit here, the Dark Lord’s prized pet, while your righteous, Auror brother – who _adored you_ \- worried about you day in and day out… the thought was sickening.

 

And it only fueled the hatred that he felt towards to young man. His best-friend’s brother.

 

Still, the questions came. “Who’re your favorite subordinates, you know, the ones closest to you?” well, he didn’t think of them as _subordinates_ , but the potion seemed to think otherwise.

 

“Tina Goldstein, Amy Rossenberg, Alaina Lopez, Krita Nehru, Marco Iroquoian, Lucas Fontaine and Archie Sanders,” he replied.

 

“Good, good. What time do you usually clock in? What time do you leave? Do you know of anyone with a crush on you? Any popular gossip? Do any of your siblings work in MACUSA? What does your family look like?”

 

It lasted about 2 hours before Newt (because he refused to refer to him by the same last name as his good friend) smiled at him, got up, and led him back to his cell.

.

 

Newt took a picture out of his notes and slid it up to him. “Tell me now, who’s who?” It was a picture of his department.

 

There were nine people in there, he recognized it from a newspaper clipping, though he couldn’t remember which one. He’s in the front, waving to the press, behind him on _his_ right is Tina Goldstein, Krita Nehru, Lucas Fontaine and Marco Iroquoian, on _his_ left are Archie Sanders, Amy Rossenberg, Alaina Lopez and finally, right behind him, is President Picquery.

 

He lists them all for Newt and following another question, he gives him the details of their personal life.

 

Newt leads him back to the cells looking a little grim.

 

“Goodnight,” that was odd. He’d never said that before.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Graves didn’t see Newt that week at all. It was starting to get lonely. Halfway through their interviews he’d been moved to a separate wing. It was fairly more comfortable (in the sense that it had more space, but his foot was still chained to the floor, a mattress near him since the chain didn’t extend more than three feet, but he supposed that the reason was because it was a lot closer to the interrogation room.

 

His arms, however, remained tied behind his back. At times Newt had let him take the cuffs off, something about how this was a ‘no spells’ ward, that regardless of whether or not he had his cuffs on he couldn’t use magic.

 

Gods, he hated to admit it, but he missed the traitor named Newt.

 

It was another week or so (he couldn’t really remember how time passed anymore) before he saw Newt again.

 

The man, who was usually so full of life, came down to sit by his bars right next to him on the floor.

 

“Hello,” he greeted. “How is everything going?”

 

Graves didn’t reply. He wouldn’t.

 

Newt looked at him and smirked a little, “You’re not much of a talker, are you?”

 

Graves’s lips shut tight and he turned his attention to the wall in front of him. He. Would. Not.

.

 

It turned out to be only two more visits before he found out that he very much would.

 

“Why are you here? Why do you keep coming back?”

 

Newt shrugged. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked, I wanted to make sure that you weren’t going mad.”

 

“Well, I’m not, so you can just leave.” He snapped.

 

“Suit yourself,” Newt said and left.

.

 

Again, about a week from his time. This time, Newt came into the cell.

 

“I thought your arms might need a bit of a stretch,” he said.

 

“Thank you,” it’s been a while and he hopes never to have his arms restrained that long again.

 

“I hope that you have been sleeping alright.”

 

“I have.”

 

“The guards tell me you sometimes suffer from nightmares.”

 

“I’m an Auror.”

 

“Would you like to talk about them?”

 

“No.”

 

They sat in silence for about half an hour, or at least Newt sat, Graves walked around, stretching his legs and arms.

 

Newt coughed, “Um, well, Mr. Graves, I shall be heading back, I truly am sorry, but…”

 

Graves nodded in understanding.

 

Newt replaced the cuffs and left, Graves sitting back in his corner and thinking, plotting. He didn’t know why he’d been made to give away so much personal information. In one interview he’d even been asked to recount childhood stories! Nevertheless, he didn’t assume that it was for anything good and had begun to plot his escape.

 

The only problem was that Nurmengard was so vast and he’d only ever seen a few halls of it.

 

In addition, he was nothing without his magic. He couldn’t pry open his chains or rip apart the very foundation of this building if he didn’t at _least_ have wandless magic. He could maybe apparate- oh _wait_ , but he was in an anti-magic unit. And what made it worse was his lack of company. At least in his old enclosure he’d had _some_ people to talk to, here he had no one save for the occasional pop-in from Newt which he was beginning to enjoy more than he cared to admit.

.

 

The seventh time Newt visited the interior of his cell was definitely weird.

 

He’d let him walk around a little and talked to him about politics, smugly mentioning ‘Gelly’s’ last attack. That was normal.

 

He’d then proceeded to place the cuffs back on him, kiss him on the cheek, and leave.

 

Graves fell down, stunned. What the ever-living hell did Sca- _Newt_ think that he was doing?

 

Oh gods, oh gods, ohgodsohgodsohgods, he was so _dead!_ If the nerves didn’t kill him then Grindelwald sure as hell would. And if Grindelwald didn’t kill him and he got out and the news reached Theseus- no, Graves didn’t want to be alive for that.

 

Then again, maybe he could get the older Scamander to take his side if he told him everything, sure Theseus couldn’t be _that_ overprotective.

 

But still, despite everything, he didn’t want to _die_ , he wanted to be _rescued_ so that he could avenge himself- he paused. How would Eddie and Theo react? Or his father?

 

He’d never really discussed his sexuality with his father, but he knew of some nasty rumors that his father had once hexed a man for being gay and it frightened him. Mostly because whilst other young witches and wizards were taught about this sort of stuff (magical families tended to prefer alive non-heterosexual offspring to dead closeted ones) he and his siblings had never gotten the talk. Even their mother seemed hesitant to discuss it.

 

Eddie had said something when they were younger about some shit that he was too panicked to remember, but _gods_ this was not OK!

 

For the first time in weeks, he did not look forward to Newt’s next visit…


	5. Chapter 5

OK, scratch that. It had been _another_ week, or at least from his perspective, once more, he didn’t have a calendar or enough human contact to figure out what day or time it was.

 

It was starting to get lonely. The only human contact he had was from a faceless guard that came every day with a meal for him, and then the same guard came back to take the dish. Where were the House Elves?

 

He couldn’t believe that he fucking missed that asswipe. Ugh. Newt made his skin crawl!

 

How could _he_ be in league with _Grindelwald!?_ _Theseus_ Fucking _Scamander’s **little brother!!**_

 

And what disgusted him even more was that Newt had been in league with Grindelwald for what, eight years? Nine? Possibly longer. If his mysterious disappearance hadn’t really been so mysterious, well, Graves wouldn’t be surprised. No one just ‘disappears’ especially not wizards, not without a crazy amount of help. Who was to say that Newt hadn’t just decided to take off with his lover? Maybe he’d been sick of living a lie…

 

That wouldn’t have been all that much of a problem- if Newt had left and joined the Dark Lord, no, Graves dealt with people like that… well, not _everyday_ , but whenever MACUSA could catch them.

 

The issue that Graves had with him was that he’d lied to everyone who had ever loved him- except, he supposed, Grindelwald whom until recently he didn’t know was capable of love or being loved- and one of those people was someone whom Graves had fought beside during war time, someone whom he still frequently corresponded with, someone whom he considered a great friend and an even greater ally, his British equivalent, Theseus Scamander. And if current Theseus was still even an ounce as fond of Newt as war Theseus- and Graves was sure he was- then this truly was a betrayal of the highest degree, and he _hated_ traitors with a burning passion.

 

Every letter Percival got from Theseus started with a ‘I still haven’t found him,’ before launching into details about his personal life and inquiring into Percival’s own. When Newt had disappeared, The Ministry of Magic had spent a full month searching for him- Graves believed it was mostly to appease the Scamander family, as they were quite powerful and influential and Theseus had been heralded a War Hero so probably to gain his favor as there was no denying that the young wizard had a shit-tone of talent- but they’d come up short and Theseus had done some… questionable stuff, but he’d quit it so Graves so no reason to think about it all that much longer. Still, he’d fallen in to it after a year of searching and searching with no clues anywhere, so yeah, Graves was gonna blame that one on Newt as well.

 

He’d even helped out! After leading a search party through the USA ( _“Can you imagine what would happen if we found him? The British would be indebted to us, we’d have a major advantage,” he’d convinced Emmanuel Jenkins, Picquery’s predecessor)._ Nothing! He’d port-keyed to England to see Theseus just as he was nearing his death via… the questionable stuff, but he’d put an end to it. That was what mattered.

 

Now after all of that, Sc- _Newt_ , had the fucking gall to- despite knowing who he was and that he was pretty good friends with his brother- kiss his cheek- to- to _chat_ with him, to be here, acting like they were friends- like they were something _more_! _Urgh!_ It made his skin _crawl!_

 

So yeah, when Newt came back he wasn’t all that happy, no. Quite the contrary. He got into the cell and Graves fucking _growled_ at him.

 

“Pleased to see you, Mr. Graves,” Newt nodded.

 

“Cut the crap, Newton,” Graves had never called him that before. “What do you want?”

 

“Well, I’ve come to take your cuffs o-”

 

“What do _you want!?”_

 

“To help y-”

 

“ _What do you want!?”_ Graves roared.

 

Newt was pale and trembling just a little.

 

“M-Mr. Graves,” he whispered, clearly shaken, “Please c-c-c-calm down.”

 

“ _I will not **fucking** calm down until you **fucking** tell me what the **bloody hell** is going on_!”

 

Newt looked like he wanted to cry and Graves looked up just in time for him to see Newt quickly wipe a tear from his cheek.

 

How _fucking dare he_. _Graves_ was the one in jail, being held against his will, not Newt. _Graves_ was the one who was scared for his family _not Newt_. _Graves was the one who was **fucking** **fighting for the good of mankind**_ … not… not Newt…

 

He looked up at the younger male, pure hatred burning in his eyes.

 

“umm… I-I,” Newt stammered.

 

“You _what_?” Graves said, his voice carrying across his loathing of the younger man pretty well.

 

Newt leaned forward and kissed him on the lips _hard_.

“Legilimens,” Newt incanted, tears shining in his eyes.

 

Everything that he’d thought they’d been after since the beginning flashed before his eyes. Every secret of MACUSA, every detail about his personal life, all the scandals and cover-ups he and Picquery had lead. Every confidential piece of information that he had ever been entrusted with, all placed under one unbelievably powerful legilimency spell that he couldn’t get past even with all of his years training in occlumency. Then again, what did he expect? Legilimency was made easier when certain emotions were at their peak, and regrettably for him, one of those was rage.

 

When the spell finally stopped, Graves lunged at Newt, but his chains held him back as Newt jumped back, and besides, without the use of his arms, what was he going to do to him anyways?

 

A dark shadow passed outside of his cell. A man, Grindelwald.

 

“Are you done, pet?” he hummed, his gods awful voice ringing in Graves’s still dizzy head.

 

“Yes,” Newt breathed.

 

“Good,” his deep voice rumbled.

 

Newt opened the cell, got out, locked it (not that there was much of a point, but hey, when you were housing the Director of Magical Security you could never take too many precautions).

 

Grindelwald put his arm around him and Newt leaned into the older male walking away with him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the main point of the last chapter was supposed to focus on Graves and his current emotions towards Newt. This chapter is going to be the first one that focuses on Newt and his relationship with Grindelwald.

Newt looked glum, sitting on the bed as Gellert packed his suitcase.

 

“And you’re sure that you'll be safe?”

“Positive, love.”

“You’ll be back? Soon, I mean?”

 

Grindelwald chuckled, placing a kiss atop his lover’s head.

 

“Of course,” he smiled, a friendliness he didn’t show the rest of the world displaying itself on his face. “Nothing could keep me away from you,” his hand brushed back the hair on Newt’s forehead. “Not horses nor fire nor rain,” he placed another kiss on Newt’s head. “Definitely not other wizards,” he mused, “not even death, my love.”

 

“And you're certain that I can’t come along?”

 

Grindelwald knelt down in front of Newt. “Dearest, I wish nothing more than for you to come with me on this mission, especially due to your expertise in Obscurials. You remember the Sudanese girl, right? She probably would’ve lived had we brought her to you sooner, and I'm scared of the possibility of that being the case again, but-” Grindelwald looked remorseful. “I need someone to watch over this place when I'm gone, give me information when I need it and make sure nothing bad happens,” he paused, “and there is not one person in the whole entire world that I trust to do that more than you.”

 

Newt blushed a little and then leaned forward and kissed the man. “I love you too, dear. I just don’t want you gone too long because then I’ll miss you.”

“You’ll have the two way mirror,” Gellert pointed out.

“Yeah, but I can’t do this,” he gripped his hands in Grindelwald’s shirt, pulling him onto him in a deep kiss as he began to unbutton it, “over the mirror,” he said huskily as Grindelwald growled and begun to place kisses on his neck, throwing off Newt’s vest and unbuttoning his shirt as Newt laughed.

.

 

Grindelwald left the next morning.

 

He was apparating despite the far distance between Nurmengard and MACUSA. He’d be tired when he got there, most wizards couldn’t manage the distance or even half of it, but he was not most wizards. It had been a month since they’d captured Percival Graves, but that was alright since he had insiders who had been confundusing people and the one, Jenkins, who had not only masterminded the entire thing, but had even Imperiused Graves’s family into sending note after note about how they were ‘sorry that they were keeping Percival, but he’d accidentally fallen out of a tree trying to catch his nephew who’d climbed up too high and was severely acrophobic.

 

He’d left behind a very disappointed Newt after a quick round good morning sex.

 

Newt sighed. What was he going to do? The tall, gloomy fortress they called Nurmengard was dull without his beloved. Grindelwald had said that it would only take two months and had _promised_ to be home for Christmas, which Newt was sure he’d keep, but he was use to Gellert’s missions taking a lot longer than the expected time. He loved that man to bits but _gods_ did he overestimate himself, which he understood was pretty easy when you were famous for being one of the most powerful wizards of all time and were currently in possession of the Elder Wand.

 

He sighed, sitting down in his office in a large brown armchair. His thoughts drifted to a single person, Percival Graves, whom Gelly had transfigured himself into before leaving.

 

Percival Graves, the DMS of MACUSA, one of the most influential wizards on the planet, his prisoner (he’d managed to convince Gelly not to kill him yet, _‘He might be useful’ he’d argued. ‘And as a friend of Theseus, he likely has some in tell on the Ministry of Magic as well._ Not that Gelly had needed much convincing, Gelly always caved into what Newt wanted and vice versa. When they both had differing opinions they simply presented their arguments to one another and if they still didn’t agree they would let luck decide) and one of his brother’s best friends if not his best.

 

Newt paused. It had been an awfully long time since he’d thought of Theseus. He knew, of course, that his brother would disapprove, but what he and Gelly were doing was for the betterment of Wizarding kind. Too long had they lived in fear of muggles. Psh! What were muggles compared to them anyways? Those worthless scum that would kill their own kind over trivial things such as skin colour and sexuality! Those little roaches that had to rely on machinery to survive, had to rely on wizards’ good grace. Once, when he’d gone out with Gelly, he’d watched as his lover had effortlessly killed a village of about a hundred or so muggles. Wiped them all out with a single experimental curse.

 

On other travels with his beloved he’d seen them do depraved things to each other and to wizards alike. Had looked in the Pensieve kept in Gelly’s office (which he _of course_ had free access to) at the memories submitted by all of Gelly’s employees. It was mandatory so that Gelly could understand why they wanted to join his forces. If their reasons were good enough, then he let them in. And _man_ were the ones that Newt had seen good enough!

 

All of their employees had been abused by muggles in ways that would make any wizard tremble, but had come out of their sadness and self-pitying seeking revenge.

 

One had seen her family, nailed to the ground and had watched on in horror as her mother and sister- already in pain- had been raped by various villagers and her brother and father forced to eat excrement. He’d watched with pleasure as Gelly had taken a small team of people (including the girl and Newt _of course_ ) and had let the girl cast a Cruciatus curse on each of the rapists (all having been tied up). She’d used the Imperius curse on the Priest that had been in charge of the worst moment of her life, and made him and another man (his apprentice) sodomize each other before forcing the younger man to eat his mentor raw.

 

Yes, Cathy truly was the best there was. They were close friends, too.

 

He was probably the only one in Nurmengard who hadn’t been abused by a muggle due to leading a sheltered life in a wizarding village, going to a wizarding school, working with wizards and dragons during The Great War and finally winding up here with a man he deeply loved.

 

But of course Gelly didn’t mistrust him, how could he? They were in love, he faltered, or at least he was. Gellert might constantly give him kisses and have sex with him and compliment and tell him how much he loves him and give into what Newt wants… but they’d been dating for nearly seven years now and were still what youngsters would classify as being merely ‘boyfriends’. Didn’t most couples get married after a little over a year of dating?

 

He knew it was selfish, that Gelly had a lot on his plate and was working hard to make the world a better place for wizardkind, but he _really_ wanted to settle down with the love of his life, get pregnant, give Gelly kids, and it wasn’t like Newt was getting any younger.

 

And he couldn’t leave Gelly and find someone else because he doubted that he’d ever be able to love them as much as he loved Gelly and that wouldn’t be fair to them. Plus, he couldn’t picture a life with out his sweetheart.

 

He frowned. Fuck, what was he going to do while Gelly was gone? It was October, and he likely wouldn’t see him until December. How on earth was he supposed to live like this, unsure if his beloved was safe or not?

 

He took out the mirror. Should he contact him now or would that make him seem desperate? Wait, why was he acting like a school girl? Of course he should call him! He wasn’t crushing on the man, they'd been in a relationship for seven fucking years! gah!

 

He tapped on the mirror and Graves’s face popped up, he smiled. That was a _very_ good transfiguration charm. He wouldn’t have known that it was him if he hadn’t been in on the plan.

 

He watched his beloved frown, wearing Graves’s face. “That’s odd, I was just about to call you. Is the charm malfunctioning?

 

“No, no dear,” he explained, “I just called you.”

 

That made Gellert smile. “I love you so much.”

“I love you more.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Yes it is, because I do.”

“It’s impossible. I know it is because I say so.”

“Nope.”

“Yep.”

“Nup.”

“Yup.”

“No Newton.”

“Yes Gellert,” Newt added mock severity to his voice causing both him and Grindelwald to laugh. Gods he loved that man.

 

“I’m sorry, love, but I have to go,” Gelly sounded _really_ upset, almost as though he wanted to kill everyone in MACUSA for making him hang up on Newt.

 

“It’s alright, dear,” Newt smiled. “I understand, call me when you're free, I’ll be waiting.”

 

“Now you're making me feel bad,” Gellert whined.

 

Newt laughed. “Goodbye for now, love.”

 

“Goodbye,” Gellert made a kissing motion, which looked weird coming from Director Graves’s mouth. and Newt smiled, feeling his heart break a little as the mirror stopped showing him his love.

 

Today was going to be a _long_ day.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last, we get a look into Graves's perspective of what happened.

Graves growled as he saw the familiar approaching shadow. How. Fucking. _Dare_. He!?

 

He looked at the wall in front of him. Newt sat outside, staring at him. Graves was _livid_. How. _Fucking_. **_Dare_ … **he…

 

Graves sucked in a large gulp of air and did his best to blink away the tears forming in his eyes. He frowned, didn’t blinking only help the tears? He really wished the man would leave. It had been _waaay_ more than a week from his perspective (he now measured based on the number of times he fell asleep) so clearly Newton had proved that Graves didn’t _need_ checking up on… So why was that fucking traitor here? What had made him think that it was alright to come back?

 

No. He was not going to give the younger male the satisfaction. He hadn’t wanted to earlier, and he'd been right. He’d been used. Of course though, it had made sense. Due to all of Newton’s mind invasions he had developed an affinity to occlumency, a mind that Newton hadn’t been able to breach three visits before their last. At the time, he had feared that Newton was going to use a curse on him.

 

He may have been a famous Auror and the Director of Magical Security but he’d always somehow been fortunate enough to avoid ever being hit by an Unforgivable Curse. It saddened him dearly, of course, that he’d had to witness so many colleagues die or be ‘crucio’d, but he had a lot of luck.

 

His sister was a _fantastic_ potion maker. She ran a shop in New Jersey- Margie’s Magic Shop. She always sent him a few bottles of Felix Felicis whenever a holiday came up. He always made sure to take them sparingly, whenever a _big_ case came up. There was, of course, the MACUSA potions section, they brewed potions for the rest of MACUSA, but he didn’t trust them as much as he trusted Margie.

 

But that aside, he’d never been more afraid than when he thought that Newt was going to Cruciatus him. He’d watched the pain that so many of his colleagues had gone through. He hadn’t wanted it, but he’d understood that MACUSA’s secrets were a lot more important than a little ~~lot of~~ pain.

 

Not that it mattered. MACUSAs most confidential information was now the knowledge of Gellert Grindelwald, and it was all thanks to the man who was _fucking sitting **next to him!?**_

 

Newton _Fucking_ Scamander was so _fucking_ lucky that they were separated by these _fucking_ bars and that he was _fucking_ restrained, because if he had been _fucking_ free, he would _fucking rip the younger male **limb from FUCKING limb!**_

 

It had to have been at least 10 minutes, why wasn’t Newt saying anything? Graves’s neck slowly lifted u- _no_! He forced it back down. Didn’t Percival remember the last time he’d looked up. The last time they’d conversed. The last time that fucking _whore_ had been in his cell.

 

Wait, did he really think of this place as _his_ cell… damn, that was a scary thought.

 

Still, it was tempting.

 

Psh! This was ridiculous! _Newt_ was the one in the wrong and somehow _he_ was the one paying for it.

 

Graves laid down, time to add another ‘day’ to his ‘calander’.


	8. Chapter 8

Newt had come and gone, sometimes for hours, without even a second glance from Percival. The man would see him coming and ignore him completely.

 

 _Of course,_ Newt thought, slumping down on his and Grindelwald’s bed, _Of course Graves hates me. I betrayed him, whether he’d counted it as a betrayal due to his deep hatred for me or not. I kissed him and used his brief moment of weakness to give Gelly access to the other man’s thoughts. I’ve done some other stuff too, before, but it had all been so impersonal._

 

 _Gah!_ Why did he even care!? Who cared about Graves? There was nothing special about the man! Nothing at all! They only needed him for his knowledge and his position in MACUSA.

 

 _Strong and powerful,_ Newt thought _… just like Theseus…_

His eyes widened and he raised a hand to his face. Gods, Theseus. He’d forgotten to tell Gelly that he and Graves were pen pals. He took out his mirror and double-tapped the screen. All he could see was darkness.

 

“Fuck!” he cursed, the mirror must've been inside Gelly’s pocket. “Love! Love! _Honey!_ ” he heard shifting.

 

He saw a bright light outside and then Graves’s face.

 

“Yes, dear?” he asked, frowning. “You need to be quick or I’ll be late to ‘work’.”

 

“Honey, there’s something I forgot to tell you about Graves,” Newt said. “He's penpals with-”

 

“With Theseus, I know,” Grindel!Graves nodded. “I responded to one last night.”

 

“Oh.” Newt blinked. “Uh, what did, what did he say?”

 

Grindelwald’s heart plummeted. What was he going to say? He couldn’t tell Newt that Theseus was _still_ looking, it would only devastate him. He decided to talk about the other part of the letter.

 

“Oh, you know. Just griping about how I’m ‘causing a ruckus all over Europe’ and whatnot,” Graves’s face flashed a smile.

 

That brought about a small smile from Newt. His brother _loved_ the word ‘ruckus’ in fact, he’d commonly described Newt as one, growing up.

 

Gellert smiled back, a little sadly. “Listen, love. I have to go now, but I’ll talk to you tonight, alright?”

 

Newt nodded. “Goodbye, sweetheart.”

 

“Goodbye, love.”

Newt sighed, slumping down into his and Grindelwald’s bed. The worst part was probably the time difference, though he _had_ been doing his best to adjust to Gelly’s. New York was about a 12 hour time difference, though. Nurmengard, whilst believed to be in Nuremberg Germany, was _actually_ situated in Perth, Australia.

 

It was under a Fidelius Charm, so that nobody could find it. He was the primary Secret Keeper. Gelly had chosen him because he wanted it to be a safely kept secret, and he knew that if Gelly ever died in battle then everyone who knew about this place would be Secret Keepers, and that would be a _major_ security breach, he’d have to kill everyone in this place.

 

Contrary to popular belief, he’d never actually used the Death Curse. He’d never actually _killed_ anyone before, that included during his time in the war- _the war_.

 

Gods, his mind was starting to hurt. It had been years and years since he’d thought about the war, but that entire time frame was just a foggy blur in his mind.

 

He’d go to see Graves again tomorrow, but right now it was time to retire, he’d have to get used to sleeping earlier and earlier if he wanted to get on time with Gelly. Gods, it’d been so long since he’d talked to anyone properly. Usually he had Gelly, but he was always so tired when he got back and Newt hated keeping him up when he stared at the baggy eyes of the _un-transfigured_ face of the man whom he so loved.

 

And yet it was still so lonely. Back when he and Gelly had been scheming a plot to get Gelly into Graves’s newly occlumised head, he had at least gotten _some_ form of contact from another human being.

 

There were of course the guards, but they saw him as their boss’s consort/their boss, and that never ended too well. The other prisoners _obviously_ all hated him, because it was he who was keeping them captive.

 

For the first time in a long time, Newt resented his lover for leaving on such a long excursion. Usually on shorter ones he'd at _least_ take Newt, but Grindelwald always said that the longer the mission the more risky it was and that he didn’t want to compromise on Newt’s safety.

 

As though Newt wanted to compromise his.


	9. Chapter 9

“What do you know about Theseus Scamander?”

 

If Graves had had free access to water he would have done a spit take.

 

Newt winced internally, that was probably not the right way to break their silence, but what was done was done and there was no turning back now.

 

“ _What_ did you say?” Graves growled.

 

“Uh, nothing,” Newt’s gaze was concentrated on the floor.

 

“ _No!_ **_What did you say!?_** ” gulping, Newt stood up and scurried down the hall, he wasn’t the best at conflict, even having Gelly by his side sometimes didn’t help.

.

 

“W-what do you mean?”

 

Grindelwald sighed. “Regretfully, we seem to have only acquired the common locks, there are more, in his office guarding case files that Picquery wants to see by Monday. I need you to get the codes to his vaults for me, love.”

 

Newt gulped, nodding. “Veritaserum?”

 

“No, love. I’m afraid that that might not work, he’s got so many vaults around this place that I'm not sure it would work out properly, and at least one of the codes has to be drawn. I’m afraid that we’re going to need more legilmency.”

 

Newt groaned. “He’s built up a resistance towards it, though.”

 

“I know, love, but this is for the greater good. You have to do whatever is necessary to obtain the information.”

 

“Love, I-I-I can’t, I can’t use a…” I can’t use an Unforgivable Curse.

 

Grindelwald’s lover of 7 years, several expeditions with the man, and yet somehow _still_ he hadn’t cast his first Unforgivable Curse. Gelly had tried relentlessly during their first few years together, but eventually came to respect Newt’s decisions and even find it enticing that his lover was likely the only member of his army (or at least his closest circle) who had _never_ cast an Unforgivable Curse.

 

Grindelwald sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. A part of Newt died a little, he rarely ever disappointed Gelly.

 

“Alright. Maybe… maybe you could try kissing him again?”

 

Newt gulped, unwilling to disappoint his lover yet another time, “Alright, I-I’ll do it.”

 

Grindelwald felt guilty asking Newt to do this, but it was for the greater good.

 

“I’ll talk to you later. I need to go and refresh my befuddlement charms.”

 

The mirror faded to black, leaving a semi-heartbroken Newt. Lately their calls had been getting shorter and shorter, more business and less personal. He wouldn’t be surprised if the next time they talked Gelly called him ‘Newt’ or something.

 

Nevertheless, he’d do what Gelly told him to. What else could he do? He loved the man and wanted him to succeed. Even if Newt was taking a bit of a backpedal in his life at the moment. Then again, Gelly had _never_ worked a case this hard before. _Ever_. Maybe… maybe his actions could be excused?

 

Nevertheless, his next task would be difficult. Not to say, of course, that Percival Graves was unattractive, however he wasn’t the one who Newt wanted. The one who Newt wanted was, ironically, imitating the man!

 

He walked down to the cells, wand in his pocket, his hand gripping it tightly.

 

As per usual, he’d struck the wards down. Standard interrogation procedure for the hallway. He wouldn’t take off Graves’s cuffs though, seeing as how they were anti-magic as well.

 

Graves’s head lifted as Newt opened the cell door. Newt whipped out his wand, Graves jumping up despite his bonds.

 

Newt shoved the man against the wall behind him _hard_ , practically shoving his tongue down Graves’s throat.

 

 _Legilimens_ Newt thought, adept enough at the spell to use wordless magic on it, when suddenly pain hit him. He withdrew, fingers reaching up to silently heal his bleeding tongue. Worst of all, Graves’s Occlumency had improved even more.

 

“Get _out_ ,” Graves breathed heavily. “ _Get **out!**_ ”

.

 

Tears brimmed in Newt’s eyes as he laid down in his and Gelly’s bed.

 

 _His **and** Gelly’s bed_.

 

Usually he’d just dial him up and tell him what had happened, but at the moment he wasn’t even sure if Gelly wanted to talk to him. What was he going to do? If his love was being semi-cryptic and professional every time he talked to him then perhaps it was a subtle hint that Gelly didn’t want him to be emotional either. Perhaps he'd had enough of Newt, or perhaps the people in New York had made Gelly realize that Newt was a waste of time.

 

The realization saddened him greatly but it was a possibility that he had to acknowledge.

 

.

 

“What do you mean ‘it didn’t work’?”

 

Newt cringed. “I’m sorry, my love. His Occlumency had improved greatly.”

 

Grindelwald groaned. “There-there is one more thing that could… that could potentially weaken his mind to the point that he would submit to Legililmency.”

 

“What?”

 

“An orgasm.”

 

The room spun. “W-what?”

 

“An orgasm, he needs to have one before you perform the spell is cast. He won’t be in the right state of mind for Occlumency.”

 

Newt’s hand shook. Gelly had asked for many dubious things during their relationship, but this was by far the most questionable. His boyfriends… was asking him to masturbate somebody _else_ for information.

 

“Love? _Love_?”

 

If he had any doubts about the current emotional distance in their relationship they were confirmed.

 

“A-alright.” Newt gulped, Gelly didn’t care so why should he?

 

Why _did_ he?


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick warning; there's rape in this chapter. It's not graphic, none of the sexual scenes in this story are going to be graphic- over the years under different aliases the ONE thing I learned was that I can NOT write smut, and I'm not going to ruin this entire story with some desperate attempt at it. Should I ever feel confident in my capabilities it is likely that I will post an accompanying fic to this or else a separate version that is rated E, but nothing graphic in this one, just implied sex and teeny bits of foreplay like in the summary.
> 
> Once more, I am truly sorry to those who were reading this for graphic sex, I just thought that it would be wise to warn you before you got your hopes up. 
> 
> Sorry.

Newt took a gulp of air. Oh goodness, this was going to be hard. He-he’d never- only ever had sex with Gelly forget having- oh gods, oh _gods_.

 

He tried to calm himself. It was bad enough, what he had to do, no sense getting upset about it.

 

Graves averted his gaze the minute he saw Newt’s familiar shadow.

 

“Back again, Newton?” Graves growled, a menacing tone in his voice.

 

It was Newt’s turn to say nothing. The magical wards were down, at least he wouldn’t have to remove the man’s pants manually, he could probably just pretend that it was Gelly if he closed his eyes.

 

Graves couldn’t hide his shock or his anger when his pants were pulled down with wandless magic. The hairs on the back of Newt’s neck rose, oh gods, he felt sick.

 

“Wh-what are you doing?” Graves sounded scared. Good?

 

Newt reached into his pocket and withdrew his want. “Petrificus Totalus.” He incanted.

 

Graves’s body went rigid, he couldn’t move. Still, his eyes managed to flit around, full of fear as to what was about to happen to him, as Newt wrapped a hand around Graves’s member stroking against the man’s will until he reached completion. As soon as Graves finished (oh god this was so uncomfortable) he cast the spell, directing himself into the centre of Graves’s office memories.

 

0-7-7-1-9, a triangle that had four blocks across the bottom, blue… he had the codes. He un-petrified Graves and walked away, leaving the man behind him trembling, tears threatening to break their way out of his own eyes.

.

 

Shaky breath, he guided Gelly through the security features of Graves’s office.

 

“Thanks, dear,” Gelly said, tiredly.

 

Newt gulped, nodding while the image began to fade, signaling the end of the call, leaving Newt alone to his own devices.

 

Sighing, he disrobed and got into bed. At least when he was in bed he could almost pretend that Gelly was still here… that he was just going to slip into bed with him as soon as he’d finished up with his paperwork.

 

That he hadn’t just raped another man.

 

A cold dread spread throughout him. He-he’d… oh god, he’d actually _raped_ someone.

 

The worst part was that that probably wasn’t even the worst thing that he’d ever done. No, if he had to be honest with himself, the worst thing he’d ever done was abandon his family or… urgh, sometimes it hurt him to think about the past. Both emotionally and physically, but mainly physically. Like a headache or something, that was how bad his past was.

 

He wondered how easy it would be for him to simply slip away. His mind just clogging up one day, a disease or something, and he’d just stop existing.

 

.

 

Percival sat in his cell, rigid. He’d just- oh gods, he’d just. Oh. Gods.

 

He felt so- so, _filthy,_ so _humiliated_. The worst part was that there was a traitorous part of his brain that actually enjoyed the ministrations. Newt had made it just the tiniest bit easier by looking away, but none of that took away from the shame.

 

On top of that, his lack of conversation with other people had led him to believe that he was going crazy due to screaming that he echoed off the walls.

 

Seriously! He’d been gone for like two months by now, how on earth had no one noticed that he was gone!?

 

Dread settled over him as he realized that he might end up staying here forever, Nurmengard hosting his grave rather than the lovely plot on the Graves family estate.

 

He’d just stay here, locked up where Newt could get to him.

 

He almost chuckled. Maybe he had believed that Newt might hurt him with magic, a Cruciatus spell perhaps, but he never could’ve fathomed this. Not this. Not someone who _actually_ shared DNA with Theseus.

 

He supposed it could have been worse, he could have been… taken… but that didn’t mean he felt any less violated. Someone had petrified him and then touched him…  _sexually_. Had-had _molested_ him. He gave up, he had nothing left. Not power- his magic was gone. Not pride- look at what he had been reduced to, a shaking mess who yelled at walls… and now, he didn’t even have dignity, not after what Newt had done.

 

When he got out, he was going to rip the man apart.

 

Limb. From. Fucking. Limb.


	11. Chapter 11

Somehow, Newt still found himself visiting Graves.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

No reply.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

No reply.

 

Newt sighed shakily, hands finding his hair as he began to walk down to exit the corridor. He hated this, hated-hated knowing what he’d done, hated living with the knowledge that he had made a man reach completion without the man’s consent. He was a monster.

 

Sleep seemed harder and harder to come by to him, and when it did it was never peaceful. He felt hands all over, violating _him_.

 

 _How does it feel_ , he could hear it coming from his mind, _how does it feel, Newt?_

 

“Newt?” a security guard- Emma- stopped him.

 

“Emma. Wha-what are you doing here?”

 

“I’m here to collect something for Mr. Grindelwald,” she said, hesitating. “Newt, are you alright?

 

“Hmm, yeah,” he said facing away from her, eyes stinging. “Yeah. I’m alright.”

 

“O…K… listen, Newt, I’m going to go and fetch Mr. Grindelwald’s suitcase, but if you need to talk to me, well… let’s just say that my portkey doesn’t leave for another hour.”

 

Newt nodded, knowing that he wasn’t going to end up going. He didn’t like being a burden on other people. Especially since the _last_ person he wanted to tell about what he’d done was Emma Jenkins… Graves’s first cousin, and the reason they’d known where and when to strike and how to handle everything else.

 

Still, he wondered why she was here, even with a task from Gelly, she was supposed to be holding the Graves family under the Imperius curse. Well, his parents anyways, they were supposed to send letters around to everyone and anyone who came to investigate was also supposed to be placed under it. The entire operation ran the risk of being compromised if she wasn’t back in her station soon- ugh! Gelly, always using far too few people in places where he could easily use more.

  
If only he’d come here to retrieve the case himself, oh what Newt would give to feel his warm, reassuring hands on the back of his neck, kneading his shoulders in comfort, telling Newt that what he’d done _had_ to be done for the greater good… even if Newt no longer believed it.


	12. Chapter 12

_“Newt… Newt…?”_

_The landscape was dark and all he could see was the cloud of mist that his breath caused._

_“Newt… Newt…?”_

Newt woke up with a start, breathing heavily hand on his chest reaching up slowly to his neck before withdrawing.

 

What… what was that?

.

 

“Good morning, Mr. Graves,” Newt greeted, entering Graves’s cell for the first time that week.

 

He undid the cuffs and promptly received a punch to the face as well as more punches raining down on him, until he was curled up on the ground, laying on his side in absolute pain.

 

“How _dare **you**_!?” Graves screamed.

 

Newt coughed out blood and the world began to fade to black.

.

 

He was surprised that he woke up at all, to be honest. Mr. Graves had been so angry with him and he had every right to be. He’d been content with dying there.

 

Groaning, he placed a hand underneath himself and shifted into a sitting position against one of the walls. He looked up and saw Graves’s gaze flicker from him to the ground. The man had been incarcerated for a little more than a month and it was beginning to show. Graves was growing a… bit of a beard.

 

“Why?” Graves finally broke the silence. “Why did you do it?”

 

“I’m sorry, Gelly needed more information. We needed your guard to be lowered so that we could access your memories?”

 

“‘We’ or _he_ ,” Graves growled. “It’s incredible to see how Grindelwald treats you- like a whore he’ll sell out for the tiniest bit of information. Tell me, Newt? Is this the first time he’s used you for this? Do you think it’s going to be the last? You're _nothing_ to him, you’re **_nothing_** , Newt. I’m sure you know that just as well as I do.”

 

Graves’s words hurt a great deal more than the punches, Newt couldn’t help the tears that were rolling down his cheeks in steady streams, the little sniff that was supposed to stop the snot from falling down his place. He reached his hand up to the back of his shirt collar nervously, flicking it upwards.

 

“I-I should get going,” Newt commented, re-doing Graves’s cuffs, locking the door and exiting the hallway. He always locked the door on both ends using a special magic key to avoid anyone catching him in there, despite the fact that he knew that there were already rumors spreading about his and Graves’s supposed ‘exploits’.

 

He stepped into his study and hesitated briefly before deciding to forego the healing potion. He deserved the pain he was in 100% and was willing that what he’d done to Graves was at least _10_ times as bad as whatever he was feeling at the moment.

.

 

“Why do you visit so often?” Graves questioned on Newt’s seventh visit since the punching incident.

 

Since his visit there’d been nothing but silence.

 

“Why not?”

 

“Don’t you have better things to do?” Graves shrugged.

 

“You mean better than watching you walk around in chains?”

 

Oh, sure. A snide remark, not like Graves hated the man enough already.

 

“Well I’m surprised is all. I’d have thought that Grindelwald’s whore would have better things to do like, say, get fucked by the man himself? Not sure what you’re doing down here with me.”

 

Newt’s stiffened, the remark was nothing but salt in his wounds. Gelly hadn’t called him in _three days_! He had his eyes on the news, so he knew that Gelly hadn’t been captured. He’d seen his lover- disguised as Graves- on the cover of a newspaper clipping two days ago, so at the very least he knew the man was likely not on any big mission. What was going on?

 

“He's gone,” he mumbled.

 

“What?”

 

“I said, ‘he’s gone’,” Newt repeated, louder. “He’s in New York,” not like Graves could do anything with the information. “Has a transfiguration charm to disguise himself as you. He’s done a pretty good job at impersonating you, even  Picquery hasn’t noticed,” he went on, watching the colour (or what was left of it) begin to drain from Graves’s face. “He’s made some… edits to your team. Someone named Tina? I believe dearest also mentioned someone called Lucas? Fontaine? Ring a bell?” yeah, his mother’s brother’s youngest son and his pain in the ass but still charming younger cousin.

 

“Don’t speak their names,” Graves growled. “You are unworthy of evening _knowing_ about them.”

 

Newt chuckled, darkly. Something in him burning from earlier comments. “Am I worthy of knowing about you?”

 

Graves had no answer to that.

.

 

Sitting alone in his cell, well into later hours, Graves stared at the wall opposite him.

 

He blamed himself, of course. Completely did. Hated the kid too, everything about him from the way he dressed to the way he spoke. Hated everything the boy stood for, everything he’d done to his family.

 

But the hatred he felt for Newt was nothing compared to the hatred he felt towards himself because after _everything_ that-that _wretch_ had done to him, every interrogation, every invasion of his mind, the rape, the betrayal, the arguments, the fighting… after all of that…

 

He was still attracted to the younger male.


	13. Chapter 13

Every visit Newt made had Graves more and more on edge. Somehow Newt had gone from the abusive bastard who had taken advantage of him to the irritating asshole he wanted to pummel into the nearest wall… and maybe kiss a little.

 

Oh gods. Oh _gods_. This was so _wrong_!

 

Newt was supposed to be the man he hated, his enemy. Not the man he wanted ravish shamelessly. Newt had _raped_ him, this was wrong!

 

Newt was annoying. Newt talked a lot, how easy would it be to shut him up with one well placed kiss.

 

“I hear there's a bit of an issue regarding the muggles in New York. Something’s been killing them, something magical.”

 

“Whatever you and that bastard lover of yours are doing-” his cheeks stung. Newt had just slapped him.

 

“Don’t. Talk. About. Gelly.” Newt growled. “You’re not worthy of mentioning his name!”

 

“Same man who whored you out?” Percival tested ferociously.

 

“Yeah, the same man who caught the so called ‘most powerful Auror on the planet.’” Newt fired back.

 

“Same man who had to ambush me because he’s too scared to face me head on.”

 

Newt laughed. “You wouldn’t last a minute against him.”

 

“I wouldn’t or he wouldn’t?”

 

“He’s the most powerful wizard of our time.”

 

“Heard he had a brief fling with another man, Albus Dumbledore. Nice guy, but Grindelwald got him to do some _bad_ things, Theseus said he taught you Transfiguration. How does it feel knowing he bedded your old professor before ever trying for you?”

 

“That was before I was even born.”

 

“Oh, honey,” Graves smiled, sickly sweet. “He’s old, but he’s not _that_ old.”

 

“Well, what would you know about love? You’ve never been in a relationship more than two weeks!”

 

That hit Graves where it hurt. Of course he knew that if he had a lover then someone surely would’ve noticed something by now, however he had never managed to find the right one.

 

Don’t be picky, his parents would say, don’t be so superficial, don’t be so judgemental, etc.

 

Well _sorry_ but his goal was to spend the rest of his life with whomever he dated, and if they liked to do things that irked him then they just weren’t made for each other.

 

“What would you? You’ve been with this man for who-knows-how-long and yet I see know wedding ring! What? Does Gelly-welly not have the courage to make that kind of commitment or are you just not worth his time!?”

 

And that hurt Newt where it hurt. He’d given the man seven of the best years of his life. At first it didn’t matter, because he loved Gellert in a way he doubted many could fathom, but this recent mission had made Gelly seem so distant, he wondered if it was really just the stress or maybe something else.

 

“He _loves_ me, which is more than I can say about any lover you’ve ever had!”

 

“Oh, really?” Graves smirked, “Then why does one of them keep coming back?”

 

“Who?”

 

“Oh, you know,” Graves said, leaning in, “British lad, pale skin, masturbated me but didn’t even buy me dinner first, hmmm…”

 

It wasn’t masturbation, but at this point he'd do anything to get a rise out of Newt.

 

Newt turned a furious crimson. “I most certainly did _not_ masturbate you, I _raped_ you in order to extract information from that peanut you call a brain!”

 

“Well, if you’re so smart then why did you need information from my so called ‘peanut’, hm?”

 

“So Gelly could convince the rest of your dimwitted staff that he was you, Percival ‘the machine’ Graves!”

 

Wow, that last one came out a bit harshly, Graves noted. That would be _perfect_.

 

“Wow, someone’s all riled up.”

 

“Am not.”

 

“Are too.”

 

“Am not”

 

“Are too.”

 

“Am n-” Newt was silenced by a kiss to the lips.

 

Graves leaned back and the horrified look on Newt’s face was enough for him to count this as a victory.

 

“Are too,” he whispered, huskily.

 

“M-Mr. G-G-Graves, w-w-what h-h-have y-y-you done?”

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is more of an interlude between the last chapter and the next one. It's very short, but it felt wrong to include it with either of the other two chapters because it didn't really blend well with either. The next chapter is super long already and will definitely make up for the brevity of this one.
> 
> Sorry again!

Newt didn’t sleep that night, tossing and turning until the morning came, Graves’s voice replaying in his head.  
  
_Not quite nice when the shoe's on the other foot, huh?  
What? Scared that kissing Gelly’ll never feel the same?  
Come on, you’ve kissed me three times, I’m only returning the favor._  
  
The man’s taunts wounded him deeper than he’d ever let the other know. What was he supposed to do? Should he tell his lover? Normally he’d do that… but normally Gelly put them under the Transmogrifian Torture Curse as well until they eventually died of the pain it caused… seriously, how was that thing still not an Unforgivable Curse?  
  
But- he hesitated- but he didn’t want Mr. Graves to die. He didn’t know why, he just _didn’t_.  
.  
  
Sitting alone in his cell, Graves paused to wonder what Theseus would make of all of this.  
  
Would he be proud of Graves for sticking it to his captor? Would he kill Graves for kissing his brother? Whose side would the man be on, anyways? Theseus was just, but he also loved his brother a _lot_.  
  
This was too confusing. For the first time, Graves realized to his horror, he believed that he might not make it out of here alive.


	15. Chapter 15

Graves had given up on the concept of time a while ago. Mainly after Newt had taunted him mentioning that he’d been gone for a month and a half, and Graves had thought that he’d been gone for four because apparently, sleep wasn’t an accurate measurement of time when you had nothing else to do.

 

To keep his muscles from dying he tried to make sure that he moved around frequently. When Newt was gone, his hands tied behind his back, he walked around the cell a bit, he pushed against things, he jumped. _Anything_ to keep his muscles alive. It was the reason he’d managed to beat Newt into a pulp so easily.

 

Think. Exercise. Eat. Sleep. On the occasion Newt would come in and they’d argue and shout at each other and Graves would feel smug about it. He almost missed Newt. It had been six sleeps- not that he knew how much time that made up- since the last time that he’d seen Newt. Since the last time he’d had any _proper_ human interactions.

 

Oh how he hated that man. He wondered what the boy was doing? Probably cowering in his room, too scared to face Graves, the coward he was.

 

The ridiculously attractive, coward that he was.

.

 

“Is there anything wrong, love?” Gelly frowned, “You look upset.”

 

“O-oh, nothing!” Gelly was still frowning, “Really, though. It’s fine, I just… I just miss you,” It wasn’t _technically_ a lie.

 

“Oh,” Gelly said, now seeming a little uncomfortable. “Love, you know I can’t come back just yet- I really wish that I could. I miss you. I miss your soft lips, I miss your touch,” a small nostalgic smile made its way onto his lover’s face, “I even miss you nagging me for sleeping ‘too late’,” he chuckled.

 

“You do have an issue with getting to bed on time,” Newt teased. “Sometimes it makes me feel lonely, like you don’t want to play,” he purred.

 

“I _always_ want to play with you,” Gelly purred back.

 

Gelly may not really be with him, but Newt still felt a shiver run through his spine.

 

Newt bit his lip. “Do you have time?”

 

“There’s been close to no crime this week,” his lover smiled, “So I can spend the next few hours talking to you and loving you like you deserve… that is, if you’re free?”

 

Newt was so excited that he forgot to admonish the man’s complete disregard for his own bed time.

 

“Always,” Newt smiled back.

.

 

Newt woke up again with a smile on his face. He’d dozed off after his… ‘conversation’ with Gelly. A smile plastered itself onto his face, ‘conversation’ mmm, that was a really nice ‘conversation’ that they had.

 

It did, however, help him understand some things. Any doubt he had about him and Gelly was wiped clear. It was obvious to him that the man loved him just as much as he loved the man… and it was even clearer to him that he felt _nothing_ towards Graves, at least not in a sexual way.

 

He felt kind of bad, the poor man must be stiff from sitting in that corner with his hands behind his back. Why did they even keep his hands tied back?

 

Oh right, because Gelly was concerned that during one of Newt’s visits the older man would have found something to weaken his leg shackles with. And once those were gone, assuming that Newt had turned off the anti magic wards, Newt could potentially be putting himself in Grave (pun intended) danger. They had to make sure that the older man’s arms were incapable of being used for anything of the sort or else Newt would be hurt, if not killed, and that would put the Infedelius Charm at risk.

 

It still made him a little upset that Gelly didn’t think that he could hold his own against Graves- he’d fought _Gelly_ into submission before! What was an unarmed man going to do against an armed, fully trained wizard who was _very_ familiar with curses and countercurses courtesy of his family and lover… OK, that came out wrong.

 

Sure, he understood that his lover was merely concerned about his safety, but he got sick of his lover treating him as though he were made of porcelain all the time just because- _urgh_ , he couldn’t even _remember_! That’s how insignificant whatever had happened was!

 

Maybe this time when he visited Graves he’d leave the cuffs off just to prove a point… then again, if Gelly found out he’d probably have Graves executed just to prove _his_ point, regardless of Newt pleading against it. And if he were to learn anything about his family, he supposed that Graves was the one to ask.

.

 

“Hello, Mr. Graves,” Newt greeted, smiling.

 

Graves frowned, mostly because he wasn’t sure if that was really the man before. The Newt he knew was constantly frowning. Always seemingly uneasy… what the fuck had happened?

 

Newt seemed to notice Graves’s staring, however he didn’t actually say anything about it.

 

“Alright, who died? Was it _Gelly_?” Graves asked, hoping to get a reaction out of the younger male.

 

Regrettably, it only made the male smile brighter. What. The. _Fuck_.

 

“Nope!” Newt hummed, popping the ‘p’.

 

The only other thing that could’ve been- wait, _could_ he have? Was it really possible? Had Newt had sex? Was it just really good masturbation? Normally Graves wouldn’t ask, but there was nothing normal about this so why should he try and be?

 

“Did you get laid? And here I thought that you were Mr. Loyal, to Gelly-Welly at least.”

 

Newt’s smile faltered a bit, aha! That’s what he did!

 

“Well, I didn’t get _laid_ per say, it was more… mutual masturbation with him conducting it,” Newt said, somewhat in a dream like state… huh, it was probably really good.

 

For some illogical reason, Graves felt a twinge of jealousy. No- _urgh_ , this man was a traitor, had raped him and was dating Gellert _fucking_ Grindelwald! And even if he wasn’t/hadn’t done those last three things, he was- like it or not- Theseus’s younger brother, and Theseus would barbeque him for eyeing the man the way he currently did.

 

“Sounds nice, having sex with him rather than being extorted by him.”

 

Slap. Oh yes, his Newt was back.

 

“Don’t say that. _Ever_. Gelly was just doing what needed to be done for the greater good!”

 

“Last time you said ‘we’. You know, Newt, if he forced you to do it you’re just as much a victim in this as I am.”

 

“He-he,” Newt took a breath, clenched his fists, and when he opened his eyes once more, he was furious. “Gelly would _never_ use me if I didn’t consent, he would _never_ hurt me and he most _definitely_ would _never_ extort me,” He hissed out. “I think our time is up, Mr. Graves. I’m going to have to ask you to please place your hands behind your back.

 

Graves did as he was told, but as Newt turned to go he threw in something extra.

 

“Why did you leave, Newt? What changed in you so drastically that you were able to leave behind your brother and everyone else whom you ever loved and ever loved you? What made you cold enough to break their hearts by vanishing without a trace to join the dark side? Theseus’s letters always start with him asking whether we’ve found you, you know? It broke his heart when you left, why’d you stay in hiding? Didn’t you see any of the news and media? Any of the reports?” He shouted out until Newt’s fading form as it walked calmly down the hallway.

 

Nothing. _Gah!_ He’d been playing on some desperate hope that a part of Newt still cared for his family, but clearly that wasn’t the case. Clearly he was just as cold hearted as he seemed on the outside. Just as cold hearted as Grindelwald.

 

A horrible thought struck Graves. What if Newt had been evil the entire time? Had known that what he wanted to do wouldn’t be accepted by his family. Had played the part of the loving son and brother, had pretended to be the awkward, fumbling boy whom Graves had heard Theseus speak so fondly of… had done all of that to dupe those around him into thinking that he'd never do something like this… it was possible that the young male had been deceiving those around him. He certainly seemed bright enough to pull it off. After all, he’d heard of acting stupid but there was no way that you could act smart.

 

And Newt was definitely cruel enough to do something like that.

.

 

Newt frowned, lying on his bed. Ugh, somehow, someway, Graves _always_ managed to ruin his day! He’d been so sure of his love and loyalty to Gelly, and now here he was, questioning it again. And Theseus, _gah_! Was Graves even telling the truth? He wouldn’t put it past the man to make up something if it would hurt Newt badly enough.

 

And yet somehow, Newt felt as though he wasn’t. Not this time, anyways.

 

Gah, you know what? He was trying to catch up to Gelly’s time zone, so it would _probably_ be best if he went to bed right now, despite the fact that it was, like, 3pm. It was 3am where Gelly was, and that was all that mattered.

.

 

_It was dark. This time, however, there was snow falling._

_“Newt…”_

_“Newt…”_

_“ **Newt…** ”_

_“Let me show you…”_

Newt woke up screaming and clutching his chest. Oh gods, oh _gods_!

.

 

“Love,” Gelly frowned, “You don’t look to well, have you come down with something?”

 

“N-no, I’m fine,” shit, Newt almost never stuttered when talking to his lover, he’d just given himself away.

 

Gelly’s frown deepened. “Love,” he approached the subject cautiously, “Per-perhaps you would consider going down to the mediwitch and having her check you out?” Newt knew it wasn’t a question despite his lover posing it as such. “I’ll ask her to see you… when? Around lunch? After breakfast? The sooner you go the better, I don’t know what germs _could_ be in Nurmengard, but if it’s something like Dragon Pox it’s best to get it treated quickly, to prevent-”

 

“I’m not sick.”

 

“What?”

 

“I’m not sick, I’ve just-” come on, he’d shared a bed with this man for seven years now, “I’ve just been having issues sleeping…”

 

“Insomnia?”

 

“Nightmares.”

 

“Oh…” Gelly frowned. “Sweetheart, do you want to talk about them? It might help to lessen your burden a little.”

 

Newt shook his head. “There’s nothing to talk about, they’re really cryptic. I’m unable to remember them when I wake up,” lie no.1 he could _vaguely_ remember them when he woke up.

 

That seemed to worry his lover even more.

 

“Dear, I absolutely _insist_ that you go to the nurse immediately. That sounds like a symptom of Herrier’s Disease. I’ll even send her the owl myself. The sooner you go, the sooner you get the antidote, and the sooner you’re cured.”

 

“Sweetest, I really don’t think it’s that severe, it’s probably just old memories from the war,” Newt tried.

 

“ _Newt_ ,” slap, “ ** _go_**!”

 

The mirror shook in Newt’s hand.

 

“A-alright,” he didn’t want his lover to see him cry, but he couldn’t help but stumble over the word. “Goodbye.” He cut the connection.

 

Just when he thought that they’d started to get better.

.

 

He’d gone to the mediwitch, of course. He knew that Gelly would check up with her on it and/or send Emma to check up on him/force him to do it.

 

She’d nodded when he explained the symptoms and, as wrong as it felt, he drank down the opaque white liquid that she gave him and left.

 

Graves frowned when he saw him walk in, but was unable to give up on their hate-talk.

 

“What’s wrong, Newton? Gelly dump you?”

 

Newt didn’t reply. And that’s what scared him.

 

.

 

Newt’s next few visits to Graves were quite solemn. One would expect this when in prison, but this wasn’t something that Graves expected from Newt.

 

He’d tried taunting the man but nothing had broken him out of his stupor.

 

Finally, Graves had to resort to something he hadn’t thought he’d do again, let alone this soon.

 

Newt had come in and unchained him.

 

“Newton, glum as always,” he said scathingly.

 

“Ha, ha,” Newt said in what _would_ have been a mocking tone had he not seemed so far away and disinterested.

 

OK, it was go time!

 

Graves closed the distance between the two, sat down on the little bed that Graves never slept on because _honestly_ who slept on a bed when their hands were tied behind their back, plus the chain wasn’t really long enough to let him rest on it comfortably and he’d likely hurt himself if he tried to climb it- as it was elevated- without the use of his hands.

 

“Newt?”

 

“Yes?”

 

Graves leaned forward and pressed his lips to the man’s mouth. That ought to do it, it was usually enough to reignite Newt’s hatred of him.

 

And that’s what made it all that much of a surprise when Newt pressed back, parting his mouth just a little.

 

Holy fuck, what had he done!?


	16. Chapter 16

Visits had gone from bad to worse. At least earlier one of them spoke, at the current moment neither of them spoke. It was just awkward silence after awkward silence.

 

Newt hadn’t expected Graves to kiss him, Graves hadn’t expected to kiss Newt back, that much was clear.

 

Newt hadn’t thought it through, Graves hadn’t thought he’d like it as much as he did. It was difficult on both sides.

.

 

“Did you take the medicine?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Good, I’m sorry I got so angry, love, but you know your condition. You know you’re succeptible to Herrier’s Disease. It’s not something that dies easily, dear. Some don’t ever get rid of the disease, you _need_ to take your potion the minute any of the symptoms pop up… you know this.”

 

“Of course, dear,” Newt nodded, reaching up to scratch his neck, missing the pained expression on Grindelwald’s face.

 

“I’ve got to go, dearest, crime’s picked up lately. I’m so sorry, my sweet.”

 

The call disconnected.

 

Newt fell back, taking a deep breath and letting the tears fall. Oh gods, oh _gods_ , how was he _ever_ going to tell Gelly what he’d done? How was Gelly ever going to forgive him? _Would_ Gelly ever forgive him?

 

Urgh! None of this made sense! Sure, he was angry- Gelly had _never_ called him Newt, at least unless they were doing bedroom things, but this context was different- but to go as far as to _kiss_ Graves _back_ , to part his lips for the older wizard- that was just, _gah_!

 

He loved Gelly, of course he did! He’d been with the man for seven years for crying out loud, surely he would have left had he been dissatisfied! He just- he just didn’t like taking the potion that the mediwitch prepared for him. There was something that just struck him as _wrong_ about it.

 

He considered asking Graves about the disease, but they weren’t really talking. He’d never seen it in any book or medical journal, but Gelly said it was very rare and that it likely wasn’t documented because his grandfather, who was a mediwitch, had mentioned that the symptoms were commonly confused with various other diseases i.e. the sweating from dragonpox; the night terrors and/ or nightmares from PTSD, etc. And Newt knew, of course, that taking the potion helped… but he didn’t want to take the potion because something felt wrong about doing so. Like his brain _wanted_ him to go through the suffering.

 

Goodness, _nothing_ made sense.

.

 

OK, Graves thought, enough was enough.

 

Did he still hate Newt? You betcha. But did he think that the situation that had occurred needed to be talked about? Needed an explanation from both parties? Unfortunately, yes. Yes he did.

 

And so it was with a heavy heart that when Newt next came in, Graves sat on the bed beside him. The younger man’s head lifted and he stared at the wall opposite him. Avoiding eye contact with Graves altogether.

 

“Newt?”

 

No reply.

 

“Newt? Listen, we need to talk.”

 

The younger male turned to face him, suddenly, startling Graves a little. “About what? There’s nothing _to_ talk about.”

 

“Yes, there is. Newt, we _need_ to address the elephant in the room.”

 

“Al-alright,” Newt hesitated. “Not that there’s anything to address, but I'm curious to see what you’ve managed to think up.”

 

Clearly Newt was in a state of denial, but that would be sorted out soon.

 

“Newt, I’ve been here- I don’t actually know how long I’ve been here,” he said and Newt replied ‘2 months’ “Thank you. But since I’ve been here you have invaded my mind, betrayed my trust, and raped me,” Graves’s breath hitched and he tried to fight down the tears. “And then last week, when I kissed you, you- you kissed me back.”

 

He turned to see if his words had any effect on the younger male. Newt just stared at the wall blankly, but Graves could see tears beginning to form on the young male’s face. Tears that did not belong there. Tears that Newt had no right to shed. But even as he tried to hate Newt for them, he just couldn’t bring himself to do so. There was just something so utterly vulnerable about the man in that moment.

 

He realized, to his horror, that- for the first time since he got here- he felt pity for the man beside him.

 

“Newt, I-I need to know… why-why did you kiss me back?” he hadn’t anticipated that he’d be this scared to ask the man, let alone this nervous.

 

“I-I don’t know, I was upset and lost, a-and it was a mistake.”

 

People didn’t just ‘mistakenly’ kiss back other people, there was something that Newt wasn’t telling him and he refused to let it go. Not now. Not when Newt was vulnerable enough that some, maybe just _some_ piece of truth.

 

“People don’t just ‘kiss back’, the last time you pushed me away.”

 

Tears stung at Newt’s eyes.

 

“Newt, do _you_ have feelings for me?”

 

“No!” the man replied immediately. “I feel nothing for you but loathing.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Yes!” Newt cried. “I do _not_ have feelings for you!”

 

Theseus had always described Newt as delicate. Upon first encountering the man, he’d been in complete and utter disbelief of that, but now, watching Newt’s raw emotions begin to surface, he could get behind that ideology.

 

“Al-alright,” Graves gulped. “Just wanted to be sure,” gods this was _so_ not how he’d imagined this going.

 

Newt got up, forgetting to lock Graves up again, and hurried down the hallway out of sight. Goodness, Theseus was right.

 

 

But one thing made Graves smile in a way that nothing else currently could. Putting on his cuffs himself and staring out of the grill (which Newt _had_ indeed locked). He’d gotten to Newt, there was still _some_ hope left.


	17. Chapter 17

Newt didn’t sleep that night either. He considered not visiting for a while, due to fear of seeing the other man, but decided against it. It’s not like he had anyone else to talk to.

 

Gelly had _promised_ to call him everyday, but really, that ended up being twice or thrice a week if he was lucky. It wasn’t that he held it against his lover, he knew things were tough, and that despite a month of searching, there was still no sign of the Obscurus other than that Gelly had had a vision of a boy, whom he later identified as a Credence Barebone, who was close to a young girl whom he believed to be the Obscurus.

 

He worried that the stress of the job was causing Gelly’s visions to reignite. He’d always experienced great pain when he had them, the first few years of their relationship he’d done his best to hide it, but Newt found out and insisted that they find a cure for it.

 

Gelly had always said that sleeping besides Newt helped put them at bay. Newt had always laughed and told him to stop acting like one of those women from his mother’s romance novels. Gelly would then kiss him into submission and have his way with him. His eyes stung, he needed his lover beside him more than anything in the world right now.

 

He reached for the mirror and found himself facing a ceiling.

 

“Love? Dearest! Over here!” he heard footsteps.

 

Gelly’s face appeared, and as he lifted the mirror up, Newt realized that his partner was likely about to leave for work, given the suit and all.

 

“What, Newt? This needs to be quick, I’m running late!” the man said, transfiguring as he talked.

 

Newt’s heart shattered into a million pieces. It felt as though there was glass in his chest, causing internal bleeding that would slowly kill him as he drowned internally due to his own blood. No, that would have been better than how he felt. _Anything_ would have been better than how he felt. The Cruciatus Curse would have been better, he shivered a little thinking about the curse, an unpleasant tingle up his spine.

 

“I-I wanted to talk, I’ve been-”

 

“Not now, Newt. I’m busy!” the man snapped, shoving a banana into his mouth before throwing the mirror onto the couch and- what Newt had to guess was- apparating away.

 

He didn’t even try to stop the rain as it poured down his cheeks. He was hurting a lot right now, and he knew it wasn’t fair to blame Gelly, the man had no idea what had happened, only that he was on a critical and stressful mission and his lover was supposed to be safely tucked away in Nurmengard with all of the luxuries of the world. Like there was nothing that could _possibly_ hurt him, let alone to the extent of pain that he was currently in now.

.

 

It took him two days to muster up the courage to see Graves again.

 

“I-I would like to apologize for storming out the last time we talked,” the man said, weakly.

 

“That is alright, Newton. I would like to apologize for making you upset,” the other man offered.

 

A peace offering. It was the first time that they had said two lines to each other without malice in their tones.

 

“So, how’s the weather?” Graves asked.

 

Newt frowned. “What?”

 

“The weather? You know, like, outside? Because I’m all locked up in here and you have access to out there?”

 

“Oh, well,” Newt blushed. “I suppose it must be nice?”

 

“Must be?”

 

“Gelly doesn’t really let me go outside, he says it’s too dangerous, that outsiders may hurt me.”

 

 _Or that your family could find you_ , Graves thought.

 

“I see. How is he, by the way?”

 

Newt frowned a bit, but shrugged. “He doesn’t really talk much.”

 

“Oh.” No wonder Newt had seemed so glum this past month. “That sounds… bad…” shit, Graves was no good at pretending not to hate someone, but he was scared that if he made Newt sad again the pity he felt towards the younger male might _never_ go away.

 

Or worse, the younger male might go away- wait, oh no, oh no, Old ladies naked, puppies, _Theodore!_ Ah- thinking of Theodore always did the trick. Oh, _yes_! He was void of any inappropriate emotions he may feel towards the man.

 

“Why are you asking all of these questions?” Newt frowned, clearly lost on the concept of small talk.

 

Well partly because he believed that there was still a small part of Newt that was human enough to realize that all of this was wrong and would help him bust out of here.

 

“Just… curious,” Graves tried.

 

Clearly Newt wasn’t in the right mood to argue, because he didn’t press.

 

“How was your day?”

 

“This is weird,” Newt concluded, “Please stop, Mr. Graves.”

 

“We’ve kissed, you can call me Percival.” Graves rolled his eyes. “Seriously, what is with you and being so formal?”

 

I don’t want this to be anything but professional, _duh_ , Newt thought.

 

“Um, I’d rather c-c-call you Mr. Graves, if you don’t m-m-mind?”

 

Graves frowned. When he had met the man several weeks ago he’d been smooth toned, slightly cocky and pissed him off a lot. Lately the man had been shy and tended to stutter, often at times stumbling over entire phrases altogether. Something was wrong, and if he knew what it was then maybe he could exploit it to get himself (and perhaps Newt, as he supposed he’d be the best to interrogate) out of Nurmengard.

 

“It’s OK, Newt,” he’d do whatever it took. “Why is Grindelwald impersonating me anyways?” he asked.

 

Newt hesitated, “He-he wanted some inside information and-and to interfere with the searches for Nurmengard.”

 

Something about the way Newt’s eyes flitted told him that that was a lie, that his Aurors could search for Nurmengard for several hundred years and still be no closer to finding it.

 

“Ah,” Percival lied, “I see.”

 

But what could be so special about Graves’s position that not even Graves could know despite the fact that he knew that his captors had no intention of ever letting him go- or at least if they did then they’d obliviate him or something, granted that’d probably end the minute he was hit by a curse in the line of duty. He knew that MACUSA was currently trying to create a potion to cure obliviation, but then again, he also knew that his sister already had one, but that it used several items that were rare/illegal.

 

“I have to go,” Newt frowned, locking him up, locking the cell, and walking away.

 

Graves sighed, it would take some work, but the more he opened Newt up, the sooner that he could exploit the young man’s feelings, and the sooner that he could escape.

 

Newt sat on his and Gelly’s bed, knees up and arms curled around a pillow. He picked up the mirror and decided to see if Gelly was free. By his estimation, it should be around… what? 6 am there? Gelly was always an early riser, and it was supposed to be a Saturday.

 

He didn’t expect it to pick up, honestly, but it did. And when it did, Newt was staring into the eyes of someone who was most definitely _not_ his lover.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so one thing I forgot to mention was that I've left a few, subtle hints to how Graves and Newt's relationship is going in the form of music... but unless you're a fan of MT there's a good chance you won't pick up on it.

“Who are you?” Newt demanded, glaring angrily at the woman he was facing.

 

She had curly black tresses, pale skin and green sparkling eyes. Her prettiness made Newt feel sick.

 

“Who’re _you_?” she frowned.

 

He heard footsteps. “Ah, Alora! Thank you for finding my mirror.”

 

“Percy, who’s this?”

 

He heard a pause. Clearly _Gelly_ hadn’t expected him to call.

 

“That’s uhm, well-”

 

“I’m his boyfriend,” Newt growled.

 

“Oh,” the woman, Alora, perked up. “Hi there! I’m Alora, Percy’s cousin! What’s your name?”

 

“Luke,” he replied, not wanting to divulge his real name.

 

“Well hi there, Luke!” she smiled. “You’re pretty cute, you sure you want to date my cousin?”

 

“ _Alora_ ,” Grindel!Graves whined, but Newt knew that his lover was only trying to put on a show.

 

“Sorry,” the lady chuckled. “Seriously though, he’s cute, and _feisty_ , I think you two will make a seriously cute couple,” she smiled, genuinely. “Plus, it’d be fun at family reunions, considering that he and Lucas share names,” she teased.

 

“Ha, ha,” Gelly rolled his eyes, and Newt had to admit that he was impressed by his lover’s acting skills.

 

“Well,” Newt smiled, “I just called to check in on him. I’ll be off now,” he switched the mirror off and placed it on his bedside. He should probably get some sleep, ~~not like he _wasn’t_ getting plenty of it.~~

~~.~~

 

He considered visiting Percival, but decided against it. The man was honestly starting to scare him with all of that small talk of his. Hmmm, he figured that he could probably go read a book in the courtyard. Gelly had brought back a particularly interesting-looking romance novel by a particularly talented with called _‘Des ananas’_ and he'd been dying to start it. And there _was_ some paperwork that needed to be done. That would probably take a bit of his time up.

 

.

 

“Hello, Mr. Graves,” Newt greeted. “I thought you’d want your cuffs taken off?”

 

“Thank… thank you?”

 

“Who’s ‘Alora’?”

 

Graves stilled, the blood draining from his face. “Y-you, you and that madman, stay _away from **her!**_ ” They’d taken everything from him: his dignity, his freedom and his modesty, but they would _not_ touch his family. “Just because _you_ don’t care about _your_ family doesn’t mean that I don’t!”

 

Newt froze. “ _What_ did you say?”

 

“You damn well heard what I said!” Graves hissed.

 

“I _love_ my family!”

 

Graves let out a deranged sort of laugh. “ ** _You?_** Love _your_ family!? You ran away with Grindelwald, leaving them to think that you were _dead!_ They grieved for years and years and still do whenever the topic of you is approached. I had to watch my _best friend_ , a man I had fought side-by-side with, go _insane_ looking for you, only to come up short. And you know what happened when he couldn’t find you, huh Newt? He went on _drugs_. **_Drugs_** _! I came to **fucking** England to check up on him, only to find him, laying in his apartment **half FUCKING DEAD  because he OVERDOSED **while **you** were here, playing FUCKING **house** with Grindel **fucking** wald! It’s a bloody **miracle** he survived, and yet he **still** devotes all his time every hour of every **fucking** day looking for you, despite the fact that it’s been nine **fucking** years! He’s unable to have start a family because people always **fucking** leave him, because rather than worship and cherish them, he spends his free time looking for **you!** Every **fucking letter is started with a ‘No sign of Newt, have you seen him?’** BECAUSE DESPITE IT HAVING BEEN NINE YEARS, HE **STILL** REFUSES TO BELIEVE THAT YOU’RE DEAD!” _ Graves took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “So don’t _fucking_ tell me that you love your family, because you clearly _fucking_ do not.”

 

Tears were pouring down Newt’s face freely, but despite that he managed to keep his voice calm as he spoke. “I _love_ my family. Sorry if I’m not as short-sighted as you, Mr. Graves, but I believe in the greater good. When my brother _does_ settle down with someone and bear offspring, I want them to grow up in a _safe_ environment where wizards no longer fear muggles, where they can practice magic without the fear of being caught and beaten. A world without Obscurials because magic is _relished_ , not _feared_. I want that world, because I know that while they might hate me now if they knew where I was, they would _love_ living in a world like that. They’d be _happy_ living in a world like that. They’d be _safe_ in a world like that… it’s just too bad that you won’t be around to see it,” he ended coldly, walking out the cell and closing the door, leaving Graves to put his manacles back on himself.

 

Oh shit.

.

 

“I’ll be coming home soon,” Gelly smiled. “I’m hoping to get Picquery off my back for a week so I can visit you?”

 

“What’s long with our current arrangement?” Newt teased.

 

“Some minor difficulties,” Gelly smirked. “For starters I can’t touch you over the mirror. Can’t run my hands through your hair, bite down on your neck and make you scream those pretty little screams you try so hard to hide in my shoulder,” Newt blushed as Grindelwald laughed. “Plus, I miss cuddling up in bed with you. You’re always so cold, I hope that you’ve been keeping warm.”

 

“Always,” Newt joked prompting Grindelwald to roll his eyes. “But seriously, I can’t wait to have you back. Mostly so I can make sure that you’re sleeping on time,” he teased.

 

Grindelwald groaned. “ _Sweetheart_ , you sleep _way_ too early, it’s unnatural!”

 

“No I don’t, it’s just that your definition of ‘on time’ involves the ams rather than the pms,” Newt admonished.

 

Grindelwald chuckled. “I suppose I’ll have you to punish me for sleeping late, then?”

 

“Always. But love, I can wait. I understand that finding the Obscurial is more important.”

 

“I know, but I don’t care,” Gelly shrugged. “Obscurial or no Obscurial, I’m coming home to love and cherish you like you deserve to be loved and cherished!”

 

Newt laughed.

 

“Whoops! Gotta go! Picquery’s trying to buzz me in. See you soon, love!”

 

The call disconnected.

 

He felt warm bubbling through his chest. It had been about a week since the last time that Gelly had called him by his name rather than an affectionate nickname and he hadn’t been happier!

 

 _Urgh_ , he loved the man so much! He had been so relieved to find out that the man hadn’t been cheating on him. He hated when Gelly was distant with him, he couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if Gelly ever left him… then again, he probably wouldn’t feel much, because he’d kill himself if that ever happened.

 

He hoped that Gelly was coming home soon, he knew in his heart that all of their issues had been caused by the distance, that if he had his lover beside him he’d be happy again. The nightmares would stop too, of course. Gelly wouldn’t have any more visions. Everything would be back to the way it should be.

 

He just hoped that it was sooner rather than later.

.

 

Newt rummaged through the liquor cabinet. It had been a while since he’d had a drink. He still remembered what Graves had said, of course, but that wasn’t a worry for now.

 

He wanted to try something new, lately Vodka hadn’t been strong enough, not even the ones that Gelly brought back from visits to Russia. What’s this?

 

He fold a dark-blue glass bottle containing a bright green liquid. He took a sip. This was- this was good. He felt calm and relaxed, pleasant sensations swarming through him.

 

He laid back in an armchair and fell asleep, exhausted from the days activities.

 

.

 

When Newt woke up he stared at the partially drunk bottle in his hands in shock.

 

That had been his first proper night’s sleep since Gelly left. What. The. Hell?


	19. Chapter 19

Goodness, there was a _lot_ of paperwork! For a secret prison and an army of wizards without any real form of government there sure were a lot of forms to fill in.

 

Then again, these were mostly messages from informants as well as reports from rallyers, some copies of the Daily Prophet, the New York Ghost, the Bulgarian Bugle and the French Spectre- all the Anglophone newspapers from the surrounding countries that Gelly’s followers were concentrated in.

 

He was currently reading a report from Donavin Karkaroff. Honestly, he wondered why Gelly kept this man- or at least why he did so in such a high position. He was so _biased_ , their goal was to create a world where wizards could roam free, not a world where wizards could roam free _unless they were muggleborns_!

 

Then again, Gelly had mentioned that he’d known the man when he was younger. They’d gone to school together, Donavin was allegedly good with dark magic. Then again, so were most Durmstrang students, so he figured that the man must have a certain ‘cult’ following him, which is why he was so valuable to Gelly.

 

Ugh, _why_ was he doing all this again? Oh right, because Gelly would be home soon and he wanted the man to be able to spend all of his time with him… also because he hadn’t really visited Graves since the last… ‘incident’

 

A part of his brain said that this was stupid. That he didn’t even _have_ to see the man in the first place, that he could just get someone to allow the man to move his arms around every now and again… but the rest of his brain reminded him that this was his one chance to learn about how his family was doing… also, he didn’t know _what_ Graves might say about their activities if it were someone else doing the visits.

 

Gelly always hesitated and withheld information, assuming that Newt was too ‘delicate’ to hear about the outside world, despite having taken him on several missions.

 

 _“The world’s_ so _messed up, I-I don’t want you to have to see it like this, dear,”_ Gelly always told him, looking mournful. And given the papers on Gelly’s desk that he was currently staring at, he could completely understand the older man’s reasons.

 

In France a group of people were rounding up who they believed to be witches and wizards and lopping their heads off! And Newt knew for a fact that they weren’t capturing any real wizards, because a wizard would just disapparate out of there.

 

In Britain, a group of radicals had recently kidnapped and murdered a wizard baby- the group was headed by the baby’s mother’s brother!

 

The world was shit. And whilst he resented being indoors 24/7 there was a part of him that was grateful that he didn’t have to go outside and face it.

 

.

 

He’d decided that with all the work he was currently doing, it was acceptable for him to have a nightcap from time to time- and not just because it kept the nightmares away and made it easier for him to fall asleep.

 

The green liquid seemed to do the trick quite nicely. He had _no_ idea what it was, only that it was good and served it’s purpose quite nicely. He’d _definitely_ ask Gelly what it was. The drink, to him, was even better than Firewhisky, and that was saying something!

 

.

 

“Honey, I’m going to be out tonight,” Gelly said, transforming into someone else- a sort of mix between his younger self and Newt, but with a more square jaw and hard grey eyes- and grabbing a coat. “I’m supposed to be meeting up with Donavin tonight.”

 

“Be careful, love, and don’t drink too much!” Newt warned. “You know what Donavin’s like.”

 

“Of course, dear. I love you so much.”

 

“I love you too.”

.

 

Newt woke up to a frantic buzzing against his bedside. It seemed that Gelly wished to be in contact with him.

 

He raised the mirror to his face and was startled instantly by Gelly’s pale, sweaty face, full of fear.

 

“Love, what is it?” Newt frowned.

 

Gelly’s eyes were full of tears. “Sweetheart, there’s- there’s something that I need to tell you, I’m so sorry.”

 

Newt’s heart dropped. “What?”

 

“I-I, last night, I got _really_ drunk and I, well, I,” He didn’t have to finish the sentence for Newt to know, didn’t have to finish for Newt’s eyes to brim with tears as well. “I woke up, and I wasn’t at the apartment, and I sat up, and there was this-this girl, sitting sleeping next to me,” his voice cracked.

 

“W-was she pretty?” Newt sniffed, the fragments of his heart scattered by the tornado of treachery that he felt inside his chest.

 

“Oh gods- oh gods, Newt. She was a redhead, with hazel eyes and pale skin- but she was _nothing_ compared to you!”

 

“That wasn’t what I asked,” Newt snapped, wiping away tears from his eyes. “I asked if you thought that she was pretty!”

 

It took Grindelwald a while to answer. “I don’t- I don’t know, dear.”

 

“Don’t call me that.”

 

“What?”

 

“I just, I need time,” Newt took a deep breath, he knew that it was a mistake to let the man go out alone to meet with Donavin, a man who deeply despised Newt, and he was about 100% sure this was that fucker’s doing, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. He was going to kill Donavin though, that was for certain. “To sort this out.”

 

“Are you breaking up with me?” Gelly looked crushed, and he had to fight back the urge to comfort his mate.

 

“No, I’m just asking for a quiet period.”

 

“Like, a break?”

 

The idea horrified Newt. “I-I’m not sure.”

 

.

 

The green liquid had never tasted as good as it did in that moment. His brain was fuzzy, and he decided that he ought to check up on Graves. It had bennr logne engnoughe riet?

 

.

 

Graves frowned as he heard a stumbling sort of noise walking down the corridors. It wasn’t meal time and he doubted that it was Newt, who carried himself with a slight air of elegance at all times.

 

So imagine his surprised when it turns out, in fact, to be the young man who is stumbling over himself like a baby learning to walk.

 

“Newt?” Graves called out, cautiously. “Are you alright?”

 

“YEh, nevvver, nevvvvverrrr betterrrr,” Newt said, unlocking him and pulling him up before shoving him roughly against the wall and proceeding to infiltrate his mouth with his own.

 

Graves kissed back, blinking. Holy fuck, what the hell? Was Newt- was Newt _intoxicated-_ wait, Newt _drank!?_

 

Newt spread his leg and let out a soft moan. Oh yeah, the man was _definitely_ intoxicated.

 

“I need you,” Newt looked at him desperately- something that Newt Newt would _never_ say. “Take me.”

 

Graves weighed his options. He could proceed to ravish the man, thus paying him back for his previous rape, utilizing the man’s guilt towards his actual lover to help him escape, or he could end this now.

 

But somehow, even as he hoisted Newt up and laid him down on the prison bed, he knew that this was wrong, and something that he most definitely couldn’t do. Besides, if he went through with this, what Newt had done to him would pale in comparison. And- and, he glanced down at the man below him who clearly was about to fall asleep, and he wasn’t sure that Newt would be able to take it. Mighty as he may be, Graves couldn’t help but feel as though there was something delicate lurking beneath Newt’s stoic façade. He hadn’t been able to meet Graves’s eyes when he masturbated him, or for a week after… maybe

 

Maybe Newt’s free will wasn’t as ‘free’ as he thought it was…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Le gasp! OMFG, Newt called Grindelwald 'Grindelwald' in his head! Graves is so awesome!


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all spelling errors are intentional, somehow writing from a sort-of-Newt perspective, I figured he may be unable to think of the correct word/pronounce it correctly in his head and that he may even jumble words up.
> 
> Oh, and by the way. Interesting new word to add to your vocabulary!
> 
> 'Mfahaha'- when Newt is to drunk to laugh properly even on the inside.
> 
> Stay in school, kids. Stay in school.

Newt came to a couple of hours later. He freaked out as the grey ceiling came into view. What was he doing here!? This wasn’t him and Gelly’s room! They had red (depending on the mood because they _did_ change colors) curtains hanging over their bed with specks that glittered and shone like stars or whatever else suited the mood, like the curtains did.

He sat up and screamed, there was a grotesque monster looking at him. It had scaly skin and bulging eyes, he tried to move away but he couldn’t. Suddenly the room lit up white and the creature looked like it was roaring. He screamed but no sound came out. His traitorous limbs finally obeyed him and he lifted his arms up to shield himself from the monster’s wrath, but they looked like chicken wings.

Then it was dark.  
.

When Newt woke up he felt… wet… he’d drooled on his shirt, he realized, and seemed to be sweating profusely. Frowning, he wondered how he’d gotten into the cell he was in. He gasped for breath, tasting the copper in his mouth. Why was he here? What had happened?

His mouth felt dry, he hoped that he had a container of some sort with him. It wasn’t like Graves didn’t know that Newt could perform magic in here, and it wasn’t really an issue because Graves’s ankle cuffs prevented him from doing magic- and not even Newt had the keys for those, he was willing to believe that Gelly tossed them into a river or something.

Oh, yeah! Gelly was supposed to be coming back in a couple of days, he’d called him yesterday- oh… right, that’s why he came here.

Because his lover of seven years had _fucking gone_ , and _fucking cheated on him_ … with some hoe he didn’t even know’s name. He hoped that Donavin rotted in hell.

And after that he’d come down and… oh, oh no. Oh nonono _nononoNONO_!

He looked down to the corner where Graves sat, watching him. A worn out expression on his face. He could see bruises along the man’s neck, hard purple ones that made him instinctively cringe and rub a hand down his own neck.

His suit- because they never changed their prisoners, but Newt _did_ cast the occasional cleaning spell on Graves’s suit- which was usually pristine, was torn slightly and disheveled, a small trickle of blood flowing down his temple. His skin paler than normal, his skin covered in a thin layer of sweat.

“W-what happened?” he managed to croak out receiving no answer, damn he really needed that water. Perhaps he could transfigure his shoe into a cup and drink it out of there.

He did just that.

“Careful!” Graves barked out suddenly, uncharacteristically soft. “Too much might make you sick.”

Newt frowned, looking up from his lap to where the man sat. “Thanks for the tip, but what happened?”

“I’m no doctor, but I believe that you just suffered an epileptic fit,” Graves looked at Newt somewhat scathingly. “Newt, what did you drink before you came to see me?”

“Nothing,” he lied, defensively.

“I don’t think it was ‘nothing’, was it green?” Graves growled.

Newt thought that he was going to be sick.  
.

Curling up on the ground, Graves had to wonder what had happened to the man. He still remembered Newt’s hysterical comment as he had tried to get the man to calm down or go to sleep upon deciding that he would forego coitus with the man.

_“Of course you wouldn’t take me,” Newt cried surprisingly loud for someone who looked on the verge of passing out. “He didn’t want me, no wonder you don’t either. I suppose I’m just that unlovable.”_

What did that mean? What had happened to Newt? And then the first fit began (in which Newt delivered a particularly hard right hook and managed to scratch at his forehead as he did his best to hold the man down), quickly proceeded by a second (in which Newt tried to strangle him whilst he tried to calm him and then gave up and tried to call for the guards) and finally a third (where Newt was clawing frantically as though trying to get away from him and ended up ruining his suit, not that he minded much, who was going to care?).

If he didn’t know any better he’d have assumed that the younger man was on some particularly strong Absinthe- actually, no, forget that, he was pretty sure- given that Theseus had gotten hooked onto the same drug eight years ago and had nearly died from it along with his own little cocktail of drugs. But why would anyone- even Gellert Grindelwald- keep Absinthe on them… unless they didn’t know what it was or what it did. Dread set in him, Newt could end up seriously hurting- if not killing- himself unless he stopped taking the poison- er, _drink_.

But he also knew from experience with Theseus, that letting go of the addiction towards this particular substance was in no way a walk in the park. Still, he’d have to do something.

.

Gelly hadn’t responded to any of his calls. He let out a breathy sigh, pocketing the mirror. He _genuinely_ didn’t blame the man, Gelly may do questionable things, but he’d never cheat- or at least not willingly. He hoped that Donavin got what was coming to him.  
.

Newt had been taking more and more of the green liquid everyday. He’d apparated into town with the remainder of the bottle and managed to acquire some more from some nice people in an alleyway. He couldn’t recall what the name was, Absent? Absint? Abisinethe?

It seemed that Gelly had returned, but for some odd reason he vanished every time Newt touched him. That was odd, then again, he supposed that’s what he deserved, obviously he wasn’t good enough or Geldy would have puroposed by now.

Mfahaha, he said ‘puroposed’ stupid ihm.  
.

Graves groaned, Newt was becoming more and more of a blubbering mess. Then again, the apple never fell too far from the tree- gah, no, even thinking that was mean.

He had to do something- for the first time since the situation began he wasn’t even thinking about his own escape. He was- dear he say it- worried about Newt, and besides, he highly doubted that Theseus would be happy to hear that Graves had knowingly let his brother succumb to the alcohol that would lead to his destruction- assuming Theseus was ‘blessed’ with the information that Newt was still very much alive and not in any danger.

He still remembered holding the struggling man in his arms, memories of having to do the same with Theseus sparked in his mind. The two were so similar, despite being on opposite ends of the moral compass.

 ~~But somehow holding Newt to him felt more right than holding his brother.~~  
.

Newt was laying in the bathtub, a clear bottle of the _gorgeous_ emerald green liquid next to him. He scrubbed across his skin, his aching muscles groaning at the pure ecstasy of being allowed to fully stretch and being pampered this way.

He reached for his loofa to clean himself up after his last session, stretching upwards when he realized that he couldn’t move. He could feel himself slide back into the tub and he panicked, quickly waking from his comatose stupor, realizing that he was going to die if he didn’t act quickly.

He visualized the stopper in his head and thought _hard, ‘accio’._

It popped into his hands and he lay there, panting as the water around him drained out of the bath. That was… that was close… maybe he should reconsider having baths for a while, maybe just- maybe just stick to sponge bathing.  
.

Newt had felt more and more in need of sex as of late. And- and Gelly hadn’t swung by like he’d said he would… masturbating was getting kind of lonely, he wondered if Mr. Graves wanted to play?

He headed down to the cells. Graves was so much nicer to him than the Gelly was. Haha, his name wasn’t Graves, it was Percival, but he liked to think of him as ‘Percy’ mmm, yes, his Perfect Percy, the man with the nice body. Mmm, the nice, strong body.

He tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. Mfm! Stupid door! Gah! He hatefd ssdoors! He pushed _really_ hard against the stupid anti-magic lever, but it wouldn’t budge. He used magic to push it- there it went. He apparated straight into the cell, startling the other man who had been doing crunches in his boredom.

He straightened and frowned. What on earth was Newt doing here at this ti- oh no, he was still inebriated.

“Newt,” Graves said. “Dear, please sit down. You’re intoxicated.”

Newt did just that. He sat down, on him, and lowered his lips down to his. Graves fought against him. This wasn’t right. Just like the last time they’d almost gone further, Newt was intoxicated. In addition, he _knew_ that the man was in a relationship with someone- yes, that someone was Grindelwald and he _definitely_ didn’t deserve Newt (fuck, he couldn’t believe that he actually thought that)- and he couldn’t help but think of the times that he’d been cheated on.

Still, Newt didn’t relent, if anything he clawed at Graves’s shirt with even more fervor.

“Please,” the man groaned. “Please, it’s been so long.”

“Newt, no,” Graves said, doing his best to fight against Newt.

“Gelly, why don’t you love me?” Newt broke down, ceasing his ministrations and collapsing onto Graves’s chest. “Why did you, why did you… oh gods?” he sobbed.

Graves had no idea what to do. Clearly the other man was hurting, but he didn’t know why. Based on their last drunken conversation he figured that Grindelwald had done something to the man, but what?

Maybe the long distance was stressing Newt out? Maybe he thought that Grindelwald was leaving him- though if the time Graves saw Grindelwald kiss Newt whilst he sat in the interrogation room was anything to go by, that was far from the case. He could kind of understand Theseus’s point about Newt being sensitive by now, something had clearly been troubling the man, but he thought it best not to push the man too far. He was already on alcohol and Absinthe no less. Perhaps if he could get these cuffs off…

“Newt, dear, could you?” he shrugged awkwardly, watching the man above him sit up, sniffling a bit, his cheeks flushed and his face salty, and uncuffing him.

Graves couldn’t believe that he did what he did next. He put those two, strong arms to use, and scooped Newt over to him, enveloping the younger man in a hug. He reminded himself that if Newt were to die due to the Absinthe he would die here in captivity having lost to Gellert _fucking_ Grindelwald. That he had to get out of here and warn the others. That Newt was his way out. ~~That that wasn’t the only reason he felt the urge to comfort the other man.~~ He cursed.

Urgh, he needed to stop thinking about this! But how- oh, yeah. Just think about Theodore. Theodore getting chased by an Erumpet at the zoo, Theodore trying to pick up women, Theodore stealing his Halloween candy, Theodore walking in on Graves’s first time… ah, yes, it truly was a blessing to have such an annoying, unattractive older brother. Oh, speaking of siblings he wasn’t (sexually) attracted to, there was Margi- oh, wait, but she was married to Tim. He rolled his eyes. Before he had come out of the closet, he and Tim had had a one night stand in Hoboken whilst Graves was on a job which escalated into more of a week-long stand, so to say. Tim had been starstruck, but Graves had felt nothing back towards the other man, so imagine his surprise when he found out his sister’s ‘new boyfriend’ was his ex…

And then of _course_ they got married and had two kids- whom he adored- and Graves couldn’t say anything because he’d never seen his sister so happy, even if he caught Tim staring at him on occasion from his periphery.

But still, he had one last resort! He may be his favorite sibling, but Graves was- in no way _at all_ \- attracted to Edward! Yesss! His tall, formidable brother who'd been on the road to becoming D of MS before he had, who had followed in their father’s footsteps to teach at Ilvermorny after having met the wonderful Eva and having three kids with her.

Ah, his two domestic siblings, living happily with their spouse- wait, no. Nope. That stopped helping.

Newt seemed to be drifting off to sleep, but he still felt a little bad for how distraught the man was.

“Do you- do you hate me?” Newt managed to croak, and _gods_ did he sound pathetic when he said that, a shell of the man that Percival had encountered… a few months ago, he supposed.

He had to think about that. Did he?

“No,” he finally decided. “Do you hate me?”

“No,” came the feeble reply, following a head resting on his shoulder, back pressed to his chest and soft breathing. Newt was asleep.

He had to do something, he knew that much. But… but maybe just a few more minutes like this wouldn’t hurt? Graves crawled into a corner, careful not to wake the sleeping man, and- back against the wall, warm body in his arms- he fell asleep.  
.

Graves woke up to a something cold touching his hand and something heavy-ish on top of him- but not an unpleasant kind of heavy, no. Definitely not heavy for him, but still heavier than something a normal person would carry on a day to day basis. Huh, felt like a- oh… _oh_ …

Graves frowned, wondering what the object his hand was touching was. He gently maneuvered Newt so that the younger man lay bridal style in his arms, then- pushing his back against the wall- got to his feet and walked towards the bed, laying the man down. He walked back to the corner where he’d felt the object.

He frowned. It was a mirror, he wasn’t in possession of one so it must be Newt’s... but why the fuck would Newt have a mirror? He didn’t seem to be the kind of person who was overly obsessed in his appear- unless… Percival turned the mirror and there, on the back, was inscribed: _dearly beloved_. Clearly the words were in place to mask the spells the mirror his, which meant that this was a two-way mirror, likely hooked to an identical one on –if he had to guess- Grindelwad’s person.

He hesitated. He was risking a lot here, but then again, he supposed that there was even more at stake. Still… he was going to be talking to fucking _Grindelwald_ of all people!

Still… He tapped the mirror. It glowed a purpley-mauve for a moment before it was picked up by someone who wore his face- or at least his face pre-imprisonment.

“Hello, Grindelwald,” Percival greeted.

 


	21. Chapter 21

“Graves?” Grindelwald (he assumed it was him, at least) looked concerned. “How do you have Newt’s mirror? Is he with you?” the man paled as he realized that Graves’s cuffs were off. “I swear, if you touched a hair on his head I’ll kill you!”

 

“No, Newt’s fine. Or at least he’s fine physically.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Have you heard of a liquid called Absinthe?”

 

“Yes,” Grindelwald frowned. “What does this have to do with Newt? And why do you have his mirror?”

 

“He seems to have developed an addiction to it,” Graves turned the mirror to face Newt. “Please, I don’t like you, you don’t like me, but Newt is my best friend’s younger brother and he’s your lover,” the word tasted like acid on his tongue. “I don’t want him dead and I know you sure as hell don’t.”

 

“What- you’re not making any sense.”

 

“Absinthe is a _deadly_ liquid. If he overdoses any more it will _kill_ him.”

 

“How would you know?” Grindelwald tried to seem nonchalant but Graves knew his own skin colour, and the one Grindelwald was wearing was at least two shades whiter. Plus, parts of him were un-transfiguring.

 

“His brother- Theseus- when Newt went missing he overdosed on it, it got bad, and the same thing’s happening to Newt. Please, I’m not in the right capacity to help him, but _you_ are.”

 

Grindelwald nodded. “Alright. I’ll be back.”

 

Suddenly, the mirror faded to black and a minute later he could see his reflection once more. He looked to see if he’d woken Newt up, but soft breaths and a fairly immobile body meant that Newt was still asleep.

 

He’d just talked to Grindelwald… about Newt. That was fucked up in ways he couldn’t describe.

 

But at least he knew where his priorities were. The only reason he gave a crap about what happened to Newt was because he was- whether Graves liked it or not- Theseus’s younger brother and someone who Theseus loved _very_ much, and he was certain his best friend’s heart would break if he saw what was happening to his brother.

 

.

 

Newt was snuggled up in the armchair in his study. He’d managed to get out of the cell somehow, he assumed that he’d locked Graves up. He was… he was pretty sure?

 

Oh well, it wasn’t like Graves was going anywhere.

 

He blinked. Oh. Gelly was back. He reached his hand out to touch him, but his arm wouldn’t move. Oh well, that wasn’t a huge deal, it kept happening so surely it was normal.

 

Besides. Gelly always disappeared when he touched him, so what was the point anyways? Clearly he didn’t want anything to do with him.

 

“Newt…” Grindelwald said carefully, not wanting to startle his lover. “Newt, dear, can you hear me?”

 

He frowned. Gelly didn’t talk… did he?

 

“Y-yes?”

 

“Newt,” but the voice was getting further and further away.

 

Gellert’s eyes widened as Newt’s began to close. “Newt?” no response. He rushed over to the man and shook him, but he didn’t stir. He opened Newt’s eyelids and cast a wandless light spell, Newt’s eyes narrowed just the slightest bit.

 

He frantically lifted the man up and raced to the infirmary.

 

“Agatha! Quickly!”

 

The mediwitch walked out. “Oh, Mr. Grindelwald, whatever seems to be the matter?”

 

“I need you to check Newt over, he’s been… unwell.”

 

Despite her age, Agatha worked quickly. Grindelwald supposed that it was due to the many years that she’d spent working at St. Mungo’s before a group of muggle radicals killed the rest of her family while she was away at work.

 

“He appears to have been poisoned, good thing that you brought him to me when you did or else it may have been fatal. For now I think a few healing potions should do the trick,” she walked over to a cupboard full of vials of mulitcoloured liquids.

 

She chose two, a burgundy one and a purple one. “The one will neutralize the toxins, the other will help him sleep because the first one can be a bit painful,” she explained, pouring the two into separate cups. “Hold his mouth open for me, will you, dear?”

 

Grindelwald parted his lover’s lips ever so slightly. _Don’t die_ , he thought _please don’t die. I’ll never leave you alone this long again after this, just don’t die._

 

Agatha poured the burgundy liquid down the young male’s throat and almost instantly he let out an unholy scream that, if this location wasn’t Fidelius-ed would have led even MACUSA to them.

 

Newt’s eyes popped open. “Breathe, love, breathe,” Agatha poured the purple one down him and the noise stopped. Newt’s eyes rolled backwards and he lay still in Grindelwald’s arms.

 

“How did this happen?” Agatha asked, walking back to her pile of potions. “I only gave him a basic remedy, but we won’t know what side effects to expect unless we know what the poison was, we also can’t stop him getting more unless we know who slipped it to him.”

 

Grindelwald looked down in guilt. “The-the poison was Absinthe. I’m afraid that an old colleague had once gifted me a bottle and I hadn’t thrown it out. Whilst I was away, it seems that Newt got his hands on it, and, well…”

 

She frowned. “Absinthe, huh? That’s going to be tricky, Absinthe’s like alcohol but _worse_.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, see, it has a _very_ high concentration of alcohol in it as well as wormwood. No one should ever have to go through what he’s been going through let alone what he's about to go through.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Nightmares, insomnia, hallucinations, stomach cramps, seizures, paralysis… honestly, had he been further along I’d’ve recommended simply putting him out of his misery, but,” she hesitated, “But I think Newt will be able to recover. Your lover is fighter, never forget that.”

 

“I won’t. Thank you.”

 

.

 

The next few days were torture. Newt came in and out of consciousness. He would hallucinate at times or wake up drenched in sweat and incredibly thirsty, drinking too fast only to vomit it all out again. He would try to move only to cry out in terror because his body was paralyzed. He begged and begged for the green liquid, ‘Gelly, it hurts… it hurts everywhere, _please’_

Finally, by the end of the week, after _dozens_ of potions were administered, he was told that he was allowed to take Newt back from the hospital wing. Agatha had managed to repair the physical and biological damage done to him by the Absinthe, but he knew that he’d have to deal with the psychological issues himself.

 

He carried a sleeping Newt back to their chambers. He’d long destroyed any ounce of Absinthe that he could find. He tucked Newt into their bed and curled up next to him. He’d missed having his perfect, cold lover next to him, even if he _really_ didn’t deserve him. A hand stroked Newt’s neck guiltily. He _really_ didn’t deserve him.

.

 

“Thank you,” Grindelwald said, looking at Graves’s sleeping form through the bars on the man’s cell.

 

.

 

“Where-where is it?” Newt asked, when he woke up.

 

He was pale and shaking.

 

“Newt, Honey, calm down.” Grindelwald tried to press Newt back down onto the pillows, the nurse had warned him that Newt might react poorly or have separation anxiety.

 

Newt gripped his wrist tightly to a point at which Grindelwald could feel skin breaking and a warm-ish liquid oozing down his skin. “Give it to me! I hate you! GIVE IT TO ME!”

 

“Sweetheart, _no_ ,” Grindelwald said firmly, he wasn’t used to refusing his lover, he rarely had to, but this was life or death and he wasn’t about to let Newt die on him.

 

“‘Sweetheart’?” Newt laughed, incredulously. “Did you already forget that you cheated on me!? You have no right to call me ‘sweetheart’.”

 

It stung, but Grindelwald knew that it was true. He _didn’t_ have the right to call Newt ‘sweetheart’ anymore, he’d lost that privilege.

 

“I know,” he fought to maintain an even tone to his voice, “But I’m not going to let you poison yourself, if you were sober you’d understand.”

 

“Fuck you,” Newt growled, wrestling him, “ _Stupefy”_ he cast wandlessly.

 

Grindelwald easily deflected it mentally, but froze nonetheless. Newt had just cast at him. Newt would _never_ cast at him. He knew he’d made a mistake when he’d woken up next to that worthless, Newt-look-a-like tramp but he’d had no idea that things might escalate this badly. Trying to stop his hands from shaking by telling himself that this was just a side effect of the alcohol, Gellert reached for the sleeping draught and poured a little down Newt’s throat as the man struggled. Agatha had told him that the side effects would take around about the same time to wear off as Newt had been drinking the poison, but Gellert was no fool, he knew he didn’t have that long. The weekend was almost up and people would be suspicious if ‘Percival’ wasn’t in office. The apparating back and forth was taking a toll on him and he wasn’t sure if he could keep it up much longer. Regrettably one could not port-key into a Fidelius charmed place and simply port-keying near the area constantly would definitely raise red flags even to MACUSA’s dimwitted staff.

 

He gazed down at his lover sadly. Newt would simply have to make do without him for a bit longer.

.

 

Newt groaned, waking up. The room was dark and the curtains shone red. That was weird, he’d just woken up and it was likely dark outside, they ought to reflect the night sky.

 

He felt a body next to him, he turned to face it and saw a faceless figure. The figure stirred and sat up. It kissed Newt, taking advantage of his state of undress.

 

Newt moaned in pleasure as the kisses fell lower and lower and lower, clutching the bedsheets as other the man’s bodily appendages followed suit.

 

He gasped for breath, his body slowly coming down from its high. When it all calmed down the man was gone, he was still in his clothes, and his pants were slightly wet.

.

 

When Newt next woke he was met by the sight of an empty bedroom.

 

He looked up and frowned. That was weird, he was feeling kind of needy down there. Where was Gelly? Wait, no. He didn’t want to be around that man at the moment.

 

He stood up and picked up his keys. He was going to visit Graves.

.

 

“I see you’re feeling better,” Graves smirked. It was alright to be nasty, he supposed, if Newt was up to walking somewhat normally.

 

“More than,” Newt chuckled darkly. “You know, I do recall you calling me ‘attractive’ at one point.”

 

“I recall you _forcing_ it out of me with Veritaserum,” Graves bit back.

 

“Better then, I know you weren’t lying,” Newt walked into the cell. “Still thing I’m attractive?”

 

“If I say ‘no’ will you read my mind?” it was wrong but by now it had been at least two weeks since his last encounter with a human went beyond someone shoving a tray in and coming back later to fetch it back.

 

“No.”

 

“Then no.”

 

“Really?”

 

Graves blinked. He thought about his options here, he could lie and continue the game or he could end it and possibly get a fun reaction out of Newt.

 

“No.”

 

A smile as wicked as its bearer crept onto Newt’s face. “I knew you were still into me.”

 

“Don’t get cocky, I find that very unattractive,” Graves teased.

 

Newt uncuffed him, Graves visibly relaxing at the ability to freely move his arms once more.

 

“Don’t get too comfortable, _I_ find that unattractive,” Newt teased back.

 

Graves frowned. “What do you mean?”

 

“Let’s just say, I have a… penchant for older men.” No shit, Sherlock, Graves thought. Grindelwald was old enough to be Newt’s dad… maybe even Newt’s _grand_ dad.

 

But that didn’t explain this.

 

“I thought you weren’t attracted to me? When you’re sober, anyways.”

 

“I’ve never said I wasn’t.”

 

“You’ve never implied that you have.”

 

“I beg to differ.”

 

Graves blushed a little. “So you remember that, huh?”

 

“Every moment,” Newt smiled, something carnivorous hidden behind his teeth, “And you know the weirdest part?”

 

“What?”

 

“I don’t take back a word I said.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, sorry this took so long to put up! I've been busy debating whether or not to post a side series to this detailing Newt's descent to darkness (without spoilers) since this story never really does go into great detail on it.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that the chapter is short, but I realized something and ended up cutting out a rather large portion of this chapter for the next one :) Please read the note at the bottom unless you're fairly sure that you understand what's going on and why, thanks :)

Graves’s eyes widened. What on earth was the man implying? Newt was sober now, right? He knew he was in a relationship, so what was he doing?

 

But a small part of Graves’s mind, the part that missed human contact for some strange reason (it wasn’t like he was the _most_ touchy-feely guy to walk the planet- prison was probably starting to get to him) was OK with doing this.

 

_Not like Grindelwald cares, he was willing to send Newt down here to perform various sexual acts with me. He also left Newt alone long enough for him to develop an Absinthe addiction._

This was his way out, he had to remind himself. And Newt wasn’t intoxicated! He was only wronging Grindelwald by doing this, and he was _fine_ _with that_! But this was still wrong…

 

“Newt, I don’t think we shhhhmfm,” Graves was cut off by Newt’s lips pressing harshly against his.

 

“Yeah?” Newt asked, cupping his face and drawing back just the slightest bit.

 

Graves blinked a touch startled, but before he could reply, Newt was kissing him again, his hands were moving to unbutton Graves’s shirt, sliding into the sitting man’s lap. Urgh, he knew this was wrong but it was hard to muster the will to end this, he couldn’t place his finger on it but there was something that felt _right_ about having the man- who, mind you, was supposed to be his _enemy_ \- within such close proximity. Something- something almost _soothing_ about it.

 

Wobbly fingers having gone a pretty long while without much activity, he raised them to Newt’s collar, fingers curling around it, Newt froze. “Don’t,” he said, pulling away.

 

Graves frowned. That was weird. “Newt-” the man silenced him with a kiss.

 

“Ssh,” Newt said, kissing him again, his mouth moving down Graves’s neck. “It must be hard for you, New York’s most eligible bachelor going without coitus for three months, wonder if you’ve ever been that long without it before.”

 

Without a relationship, yes he’d gone a lot longer than three, he Newt was right about the sex, the last time he hadn’t had any for over a month had been before he’d hit puberty. But he hadn’t really thought of sex all that much the past couple of months, funny how much one can think of escaping death, only to forget about his urge to copulate that still wasn’t _that_ needy (to be honest, the only reason he got laid once a month was because Picquery would always growl at him if he didn’t, something about how he was ‘unworkable with’ because he always turned into ‘such a grouch’ if he hadn’t been laid semi-recently). But something told him as Newt pulled Graves’s shirt off, that the little primal part of him was going to waken up pretty well.

 

Granted, this wasn’t his most conventional hookup by far. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if sex was what he wanted at the moment. What he _wanted_ was to sit down with Newt and talk about where this was going, and perhaps disc- wait wait wait… fuck, when did he turn into Edward? Urgh, his brother was _not_ who he wanted to think about whilst he was about to engage in coitus. Wait- was he _actually_ thinking about doing this? With _Newt_ of all people? Newt took a nipple into his mouth, hands going for Percival’s pants Urgh, this was way too much to think about, but he was definitely going to do this. Take now, regret later.

 

.

 

Newt woke up an hour later. Where… where was he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder, that whilst one of the side effects of Absinthe is increased sexual appetite (Agatha didn't mention it to Grindelwald, but he knows his fair share about Absinthe and the toll its withdrawal may take on one) Newt, like any other drug addict who is going through a rather obscure form of rehab, is not necessarily in control of his own mind as emphasized last chapter when he got angry with Grindelwald (which he has EVERY right to be, but knowing Newt he'd avoid the topic and try his best to forgive and move on regardless of whether or not he should). So anyways, it ought to be fun to watch how Newt reacts to the aftermath of this chapter in the next chapter.
> 
> ^^ Sorry for that, I tend to talk a lot :)


	23. Chapter 23

Newt felt sick when he realized where he was and what he’d probably been doing. He was in his and Gelly’s bed, and he was sweaty and had cum dripping down his thighs that he knew was not his lover’s.

He retched, remembering what had happened. Sex with Graves, leaving him, coming up here… and the worst part was that it was all his fault.

Graves had tried to stop him and he’d ignored the man. He couldn’t hold the other even slightly accountable for this. He made his way to the bathroom to take a shower. He felt so wrong, so dirty. He scrubbed extra hard by his genitals. Oh gods, what was he going to tell Gelly? Was he going to tell Gelly? Gelly had told him when he’d s-s-strayed, but even as Newt thought that he knew that the circumstances were entirely different. Newt couldn’t harm the woman whom his lover had cheated on him with, but there was no doubt in his mind that Gelly would harm- if not kill- Graves.

And as much as he hated it, Graves was pretty much the only person he could talk to at the moment about this- about anything- assuming the man was willing to talk. What if he’d scared the man off for good.

Newt felt like slapping himself. Why was he so concerned about the man when he’d just betrayed his lover of seven years? This was the problem, though. He did care about the other man and he couldn’t keep lying to himself about it! Not when there were bigger things at risk here, like his sexual integrity.

But Newt was positive that the man hated him. How could he not, after everything Newt had done to him? Everything Newt had taken, memories, faces, information, everything… So what were the odds that he was going to walk down to see the man and receive a warm greeting. A man who clearly thought of him as the enemy.

No, he refused to subject himself to that. He may have done the unspeakable, but he still had some fragments of his pride intact and there was no way he would be going anywhere near the man.  
.

He caved. It had been quite a while since the last time that he’d been down there. He didn’t know what to do or what to say to the man. Regrettably, the lingering effects of the alcohol had seemed to wear off, and he found himself less confident. Apparation had been blocked off to him as well, and whilst he hardly ever went outside anyways it still broke his heart to think that he was currently being treated (at least in that regard) like one of the prisoners.

He knew, of course, that it was for his own safety. As was the locking of the liquor cabinet. Still, his actions that occurred over last three embarrassed him greatly. It was a part of his life that he wished that he could forget, but regrettably he understood that this was something best remembered, after all he didn’t want to repeat this. Hoped to never repeat it.

He hesitated before taking the final few steps to Graves’s cell. Graves looked up before looking back down. Oh great, he’d been hoping that Graves could lead the discussion, but clearly the task was left up to him this time.

“H-hello, Mr. G-Graves,” Newt stammered, trying his best to speak loudly.

Graves let out a weak chuckle, not looking up. “Really? I had sex with you. Is that the best you’ve got?”

Newt wanted to die. But he had to sort this out, had to make this right. He had no excuse for what he’d done. None. Not only had he taken advantage of a man in a vulnerable situation, but he’d cheated on his lover of seven years. At least when Gelly had done it he’d had Donavin practically chugging alcohol down his system and had picked someone up at a bar. Why’d he gone alcoholic? Why’d he made the effort to walk down to Graves’s cell, open it, and have his merry way with him? Why hadn’t Graves tried harder to stop him?

“Y-yes,” Newt admitted, “Umm, s-so, I j-just need us to-to talk a-about it.”

“What's there to talk about?”

“W-what happened.”

“Nothing happened, Newt,” Graves said, a little coldly.

Oh yeah? Newt thought, then look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said.

“You wouldn’t be staring at the floor if that were true.” Newt sighed.

“Maybe I just don’t want to talk to an alcoholic,” wow, that hurt.

“I’m sober- was sober. And so were you when it happened.”

“When what happened?”

“When we had sex!” Newt shouted.

Graves cringed and Newt’s heart fell. He didn’t know why, though. He’d wanted to forget that it had ever happened (despite knowing full-well that obliviating one’s self could have disastrous consequences) so why did it hurt that Graves wasn’t acknowledging it?

“Newton,” not a name of his he heard every day, “look. What happened- it was a mistake.”

Newt felt tears burn in his eyes. Nope, nope. He wasn’t going to give any indication that he was about to cry. He silently magicked them away. Graves thought sleeping with him was a mistake? Newt thought the same thing, but he had a lover and Graves didn’t. And he knew Graves didn’t feel sympathy for Grindelwald, even though he loved the man he knew full well that Graves didn’t. Graves didn’t believe in the greater good. He doubted anything that the man believed in was very ‘good’ or beneficial to witches and wizards at all.

“I-I know. But that doesn’t mean we can just brush something like that under the rug.”

“You were drunk, I was touch-starved.”

“I wasn’t drunk.”

“Recovering, whatever,” Graves sounded a little desperate. “Nevertheless, it wasn’t a fantastic moment for either of us and we just got a little… carried away. It didn’t mean anything, Newt. It was a one time thing, just leave it at that.”

“You’re right,” Newt nodded. “It-it didn’t mean anything, did it. We were just weak,” so why did he feel like a liar saying it?

Later that night, laying alone in bed and staring at the curtains which were currently dark and displaying stars, he would go over those words in his head again and again.

It didn’t mean anything, Newt. It was a one time thing, just leave it at that alright, but then why didn’t his brain seem to want to leave it alone. Why was he still thinking about it. Why didn’t-

Why didn’t it feel as wrong as it should have?


	24. Chapter 24

Newt had been rather busy that week. It was almost Christmas- three more weeks! Three more weeks and his lover would be back…

 

His lover whom he had betrayed and whom had betrayed him. His lover whom he should have felt more excited to see than he did…

 

Suddenly, three weeks felt like too little rather than the eternity that Newt was sure they should have. He didn’t know why though? Maybe he just wanted to be alone- as he had been all week. Maybe relationships and sex and everything were just too complicated for him. Maybe he was better off alone. If he’d never had a love life he’d never have romantic issues. If he’d never had romantic issues then he’d never have turned to Absinthe… and if he’d never turned to absinthe then maybe he’d feel more comfortable walking around Nurmengard despite all the judgmental stares that he was receiving.

 

Still. Three weeks. Three weeks.

 

.

 

“I figured your arms would be sore,” Newt tried to sound casual and uncaring. Maybe if he just stopped caring things would go back to how they were before?

 

“Thanks,” Graves seemed to have no issue doing it. Newt unlocked the cuffs Graves’s arms.

 

“I see you’re developing some bruising,” Newt hummed, “I’ll go and fetch a balm.”

 

“Why can’t you just use magic?”

 

“Magic’s good for cuts and wounds, these are bruises and your arms need to be rubbed to make sure that the blood there is circulating properly,” he was pretty sure?

 

“Alright, just- OK,” Graves sighed in defeat.

 

Newt quickly ran to his chambers and retrieved a pink-ish vial. It was a cream he rubbed on himself whenever he felt pains from whatever wounds one could acquire living in a fortress under heavy guard where all personnel were under strict orders to make sure that you were alright and safe. Gelly was _so_ paranoid.

 

He held the vial out for Graves who took it and poured some on his fingers. He reached his right arm up to rub at the flesh on his left wrist.

 

“I don’t feel anything.”

 

“That’s because you’re doing it wrong.”

 

“I’m not. This is stupid.”

 

“You are and _you’re_ stupid,” shit. Did this count as flirting? Urgh, these things were so much easier for him to carry out back when Graves was just a job.

 

“Fine then, how am I ‘supposed to do it?’”

 

“Like this,” Newt reached for the vial, poured some on his fingers and rubbed, gently but firmly in large circles that became smaller ones all across Graves’s left wrist which seemed rather delicate compared to the rest of the man’s impressive physique. He stopped and blushed when he felt Graves’s arm relax and his fingers flex out, realizing that Graves was staring at him.

 

“Uh, like that,” Newt was grateful that he didn’t stutter.

 

“Um, thanks,” Graves mumbled.

 

.

 

“Any sign of the Obscurial?”

 

“Not yet, my love,” at least they were talking again.

 

“I hope you find her soon.”

 

“I hope so too, I love you.”

 

“I love you too,” _I think_.

 

.

 

“Good morning, Percival.”

 

“Why are you using my first name?”

 

“You once told me I could.”

 

“Weren’t you drunk that week?” Graves questioned.

 

Silence.

 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t’ve brought that up, I’m guessing that it’s still too soon to mention it?”

 

“No-no, it’s alright. It’s not like you were lying or anything, plus, I’m not drinking now,” even though I _crave_ the taste of Absinthe with every inch of my mortal fibre.

 

“OK. Look, Newt, I suppose I was a little… harsh when you came down to talk about… what transpired when you were- I’m guessing- recovering from your addiction.”

 

“No, you were right. Nothing happened. You were desperate for touch and my brain was still recovering from a state of inebriation.”

 

Ouch. Graves thought.

 

“That doesn’t make it any less relevant- do you, was there a reason you came to me, I mean, you have a lover.”

 

“The alcohol- it made me angry at him.”

 

“Why?”

 

“He- he, nothing, nevermind. It was stupid then, it’s stupid now.”

 

“It’s not stupid if it made you hurt enough that you came to find solace in your enemy’s arms.”

 

“You’re not my enemy.”

 

“Really, Newt?”

 

“Either way, I don’t see how this relates to you.”

 

“If you really felt that way then you would’ve told me. If you really felt that way then you wouldn’t have come to me.”

 

“Maybe I just wanted to do something to make him mad.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Who said I needed a reason?”

 

“Well, to my knowledge you two have a ‘happily ever after’ life in store for you, just without the marriage, the kids so I know he had to do something pretty bad. What was it, did he sleep with someone else?”

 

“It’s really not your business.”

 

“Well it makes sense, why else would you come here to sleep with me? He cheated on you didn’t he? Boy or girl?”

 

“Shut _up_ ,” Newt said, tears brimming his eyes, “I- you- just- _shut up!_ ” he took a shaky breath. “You don’t know _anything_ about what happened, OK, so please just shut up, OK, please.”

 

There was a moment of silence. Newt felt a light hand being placed on his back.

 

“You know, Newt, I may not be able to use legilimency on you- but I know enough about social cues to tell when someone is hurting, and I know enough about morals to know when something isn’t right.” And no offense, but your relationship with that man is _not right_.

 

“And? Why are you so hung up on this?”

 

I don’t know. “Because it’s not right.”

 

“Who are you to define what’s right and what’s not?”

 

Graves remained silent. He wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that.

 

“That’s what I thought.”

 

“You shouldn’t be this upset about this,” Graves countered. “You shouldn’t be so upset about your relationship being deemed not right. Not unless you don’t think it’s right.”

 

“Don’t try to apply your backwards psychology on me,” Newt growled. “We both know you’re bullshitting here, don’t try this.”

 

“I’m not trying anything. If I recall, Newt, you’re the one getting emotional about this. I’m simply stating observations.”

 

“Well your observations are _wrong_.”

 

“Are they, Newt? Are they really?”

 

“You know what? I’m done,” Newt fumed, getting up and leaving.

 

Graves heard the cell door slam shut as he placed the cuffs back on himself. Just a little further. He just needed to push Newt a little further.


	25. Chapter 25

He refused to cave. Just one more week and Gelly would be back. One more fucking week and he could leave all of this behind him and lay safely in the arms of the man he loved more than anything else in the world.

 

Graves had had no right to trash his and Gelly’s relationship. At least he and Gelly had been together seven (and a quarter) years, Graves hadn’t been with anyone more than two months!

 

Urgh, here he thought him and Graves might at least get along as acquaintances, that would be great, he’d have someone who wasn’t scared shitless of him to talk to, but Graves always had a way of turning things around and making them enemies again. The man made his blood boil, and he missed his lover, and- urgh, everything was so fucked up that it hurt his head to think about it!

 

Graves. _Fucking_ Graves! You know what, he was going to give that man a piece of his mind right _fucking_ now!

 

No- urgh, he wasn’t going to visit him. This was all fucked up, he could really use a… but that’s how all this started, wasn’t it? He felt like he needed a drink and then went and had sex with Graves, didn’t he?

 

And then, to his despair, he had to go on- sober, mind you- and keep thinking about it… Graves just _had_ to be good at everything, didn’t he? Piano (interrogations), magic (uhhh, _duh_ ), and, to top it all off, _sex_. Fucking _sex!_

 

And it didn’t help that it had been a long time since his own lover had touched him intimately.

 

Fuck it. He was staying in bed today! Maybe he’d visit some other prisoners, Gelly had sent in a member from the Bulgarian Ministry for Newt to interrogate. That ought to be fun.

 

.

 

Graves stared at the bars of his cell dully. He hadn’t seen Newt in two weeks. He’d been formulating his plan on what to do when Newt came next.

 

He felt a little guilty for exploiting Newt in the way he was but he had to get out of here. Who knew what kind of havoc Grindelwald was wreaking across the USA wearing his face? The whole situation placed everyone whom he’d ever cared for dearly at risk, and could- if Grindelwald played his cards right- be grounds for an all out wizarding war between MACUSA and the Ministry of Magic.

 

Plus. Much as he despised Grindelwald’s little puppet, he did happen to have rather soft, delicate skin and- nope, so not going there.

 

OK, maybe he’d enjoyed sex with Newt more than he should have, but come on. Newt had said it himself, Graves was touch-starved, and he had needs too. Weird, depraved, sick needs, clearly, but needs none the less. He was locked up in a cell, alone, and only ever had one person who spoke to him (unless it was purely to scorn him, thank you security guard numbers 1 through 5) and that was the same person he’d, well… yeah.

 

Plus, it wasn’t like Grindelwald cared, clearly. Honestly, why on earth would he leave his _lover_ **_behind_**? Surely he had a crony or two whom he trusted enough to watch the place. And look at what had happened as a result of that, Newt had nearly killed himself on alcohol- and Grindelwald wasn’t even there when Newt recovered, hence the sex that should _never_ have happened! Plus, the man had (at least he believed that he had) most likely been the reason that Newt had come to… debase him, rob him of his sexual integrity (which he was still quite angry about, but hey, he’d get out of here and then, when Grindelwald and Newt were met with the full force of MACUSA, he’d exact his _very legal_ revenge). After all, Newt had come for memories, and why would Newt even need _those_ memories? He wasn’t the one parading as ‘Percival Graves’ around New York, now was he?

 

So yeah, he was going to manipulate him a little bit, sue him, by this point he was pretty sure that he’d earned the right to do it. And sure, he didn’t _want_ to use Newt, but-

 

But at this point he didn’t really have a choice, now did he?

 

.

 

Newt walked down into the prison cells, shaking slightly. It’d been a while since the last time he’d come here. Tugging ever so slightly at his scarf, he walked down to Graves. He’d interviewed Gelly’s Bulgarian prisoner for over an hour and nothing worthwhile had come up, so he’d dropped it. Sure he was mad at Graves, but that didn’t mean that the man should suffer. His arms must’ve been killing him!

 

Newt reached the cell. “Hello.”

 

“Hey, Newt.”

 

Newt undid the cuffs and watched as Graves stretched out his arms, his strong, muscular arms that had… that had helped him cheat on someone whom he loved dearly.

 

“How’ve you been?” Newt inquired.

 

“Good.”

 

They sat in silence. Newt staring at his shoes, reminding himself of all the bad memories he’d had in this cell, only serving to intensify the scowl on his face and Graves planning his next move.

 

“So, heard back from lover boy?” and there went Newt’s calm.

 

“What business is it of yours?”

 

“Just wondering, wouldn’t want you going on another alcohol spree.”

 

“Oh, wow, congrats. Take you a whole two weeks to come up with that one?”

 

“As a matter of fact, it _did_ take me two weeks to come up with that one.”

 

“Can’t tell you much about his whereabouts but I _can_ tell you what he’s been doing with your face. Mmm, seedy bars, killing muggles, talking to new recruits about a certain ‘greater good’ if you will .”

 

Grave had to restrain himself from punching the man in front of him.

 

“What else? Seeing skanks or something? Seems the type to do that.” _Anything_ to rile Newt up.

 

But for some reason, Newt looked hurt and Graves wanted to smack himself. He knew there was an issue between the two. Had Grindelwald- had he. Graves somehow managed to restrain himself, despite being livid, but somehow to him it all made perfect sense. Of course a man like Grindelwald would tell someone he loved them only to exploit them and then proceed to betray them.

 

Newt tried to cover the hurt by making a comeback- but the response was delayed and Graves _knew_ \- “Maybe. I heard he visited your sister the other day, wouldn’t surprise me that much, really.”

 

Graves felt his fingers cut into the palms of his hands. Plan. Remember the plan.

 

“Oh, I didn’t know he was attracted to house-elves, wouldn’t surprise me that he’d rather be buried in Matilda.”

 

“Rather?” Newt sounded livid. Plan=working.

 

“Oh, pardon me, did I say that?”

 

“Yeah,” you kind of fucking did, Newt thought seconds away from punching the man.

 

“Well, you know, him being so far away from you, I’m sure he missed the feel is al-” Graves somehow managed to prevent a smirk crawling onto his face as Newt punched him in the mouth. Before Newt’s hand made it fully back to its initial position, Graves caught it and, using his other hand- before Newt realized it- pinned Newt to the wall.

 

“You know, you’re rather violent for someone so pale and sickly.”

 

“And you're rather cocky for a prisoner, now let me _go_.”

 

“Mmmm, no, I don’t think so,” Graves breathed a single word hotly into Newt’s right ear. “ _Slut_.”

 

Newt shivered. “Get. Off. M- mmmfmm,” Graves shoved his mouth roughly against Newt’s own and when, for a brief moment, Newt’s lips parted slightly, Graves was thankful to be preoccupied with the task of invading Newt’s mouth with his because he very nearly did one of the silliest victory dances in the history of silly victory dances in front of his arch nemesis.

 

He drew back, sending a shiver down Newt’s spine. “Now, now, Newton. I do believe it’s been a while,” he hooked his fingers into the belt loops in Newt’s pants watching a little friend of Newt’s begin to wake up, “for both of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMFG, what have I just written!? >m<


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's short, but hey, at least Newt and Percy are finally doing the do.

Newt wasn’t proud about that night, or the two times after that. What could he say? It had been months since his lover had touched him that way and he hadn’t even really known that he’d been yearning for it until Graves had come(pun intended) along and ravished him in a very Graves-like fashion.

 

And now what was he to do? Gelly was due back any time this week, this _had_ to come to an end!... so why didn’t he want it to? Why was it that he wished to see someone aside from his lover whom he cared for dearly… why was it that despite having someone who treated him like he was king of the world, someone whom he would willingly die for, someone he had devoted _seven years_ of his life to… why did he still want more?

 

It wasn’t that he was unhappy with Gelly. Far from it, sure they'd hit a bit of a snag in their relationship but they were both trying their best to fix it, right?

 

… right?

 

.

 

Newt had dreams that night. The same ones.

 

An ominous darkness, Newt standing alone in an empty field save for a gigantic boulder and a tree.

 

 _Newt… Newt… Come to me… let me_ show _you…_

 

Newt woke up screaming and clutching his chest. There’d- been a lurking shadow in his dream, cold, icy fingers tilting his head up, leaning in for a kiss.

 

It-it must be the disease- Herrier’s, Gelly had called it, he had to get to the mediwitch… so why didn’t he want to? Why was there a little voice in his mind telling him to stay put and not go anywhere. Why-

 

Why did he want to know more about these ‘nightmares’ and the disease they stemmed from? There was only one person he could ask now.

 

He needed to talk to Percival Graves.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy.

“What dreams?” he hadn’t even needed to speak to Graves. The man had interrogated him on the spot because Newt looked ‘tired.’

 

Suddenly, he felt uncomfortable. He’d only ever talked about his dreams with Gelly, Graves was a stranger to him… well, a stranger to him emotionally, he supposed.

 

“Just a few bad dreams.”

 

“What _kind_ of bad dreams,” Graves pressed.

 

“Just **_bad_** _dreams_ ,” he couldn’t do this. He didn’t want to do this.

 

Graves seemed to take the hint. “Alright then.”

 

He hated himself for being even the tiniest bit attracted to this man. This man who was most definitely _not_ his lover. ~~But Gelly had strayed too, was it that bad that he had done the same?~~ Urgh, he hated this. He hated that Graves could push him up against a wall and he wouldn’t fight the man for it, that Graves would kiss his lips and rather than feeling repulsed by it he’d _kiss **back**_ … he hated that he enjoyed the sex and had willingly come back for more. When Graves called him words like ‘slut’ or ‘whore’ he knew that the man wasn’t lying, they both knew that what Newt was doing was very, _very_ wrong.

 

And Gelly had called in to tell Newt he’d be arriving the following, Christmas. Newt had tried his best to make himself feel happier than he did about the information. Great, he’d have to face the man he’d been lying to for weeks. The man he loved and who loved him… the man he’d betrayed.

 

He felt sick to his stomach. This could only get worse, he knew it… the logical thing to do was _obviously_ to stop seeing Graves, but he seemed unable to make himself do that. Should he really keep lying to the man he loved more than life itself? The man that in no way deserved any of this? He didn’t know what to do…

 

.

 

“Hey, sweetheart, did you miss me?” Gelly said, peppering Newt’s face with kisses.

 

“Of course,” it wasn’t a lie, he had. “Thank you, Agatha told me everything.”

 

“Of course, love,” Gelly smiled sincerely, “I love you more than anything. I’ll always be there for you. I’m just sorry my being gone so long put you in harms way.”

 

Lots and lots of harm, Newt thought.

 

“I was planning a raid on a little village in the US, they killed a wizarding family, a young girl was orphaned.”

 

“That’s horrible.”

 

“Indeed. And I wouldn’t feel quite as right about going there unless I had you by my side, dearest.”

 

Newt smiled. This was why he loved the man, he had his priorities in check. He understood that muggles were inferior and had no right to be attacking wizards.

 

“I’d be honored, love.”

 

.

 

They spent their Christmas together in bed. What? It had been a long time since they’d had sex and both parties were rather eager to engage in the carnal activity.

 

“I love you so much,” Grindelwald whispered, as Newt slept and placed a gentle kiss on his lover’s head. “I’m so sorry for the trouble I’ve caused you.”

.

 

He got a little motion sick on his way to the states. Not a big deal, really. The last time he’d been motion sick he’d just mastered apparition, but he’d never actually travelled quite as far as he and Gelly just had. Along with them they had Ivy, Emma, Sandra, Orion, Regulus and Fawn. The village was burnt down within minutes, he kept his eyes on Gelly, making sure no muggle came anywhere near his lover.

 

Sandra, Orion and Emma were off casting the Cruciatus Curse on muggles. He watched his own lover use the Transmogrifian Curse on several muggles until they dropped dead. They walked away, the flames dying behind them as snow fell gently down from the sky coupled with ash.

 

.

 

“I love you so much,” Gelly had Newt up on a desk in his hideout in New York (there was no way that anyone had the energy to apparate back to Nurmengard, and for some reason the portkey was taking rather long to organize) and was ravishing the younger male’s mouth with his own whilst he and Newt undid each other’s clothes.

 

“I love you too, dearest,” Newt replied, before resuming the kiss.

 

This was what he needed. This was what he’d missed. He and Gelly didn’t have flaws in their relationship, they’d just been separated too long. They were in a committed relationship and they needed to be closer together.

 

There was nothing between him and Graves. _Nothing._

 

.

 

So why, the moment that Gelly was gone, was Newt on his back for the man yet again?

 

Why was he allowing Graves to intimately take him to places where his lover should have sole right to? Why was he allowing this man to use his body this way?

 

“Where were you on Christmas?” Graves had asked about to enter Newt.

 

“I was with Gelly,” Graves felt something in him flare.

 

“Funny, I didn’t see you all week,” he was in.

 

“I’m surprised you have much of a grasp of time despite being in here without any light,” Newt panted. “But yes, I spent the week with Gelly and a few others. A group of muggles had killed a wizarding family so we burnt the village down and I spent the rest of the week with him.”

 

“Doing two men at once, you really are a filthy whore.” Graves was more aggressive that night.

.

 

OK, this was just ridiculous, Newt frowned. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday due to a loss of apetite, so why was he barfing up the food he’d finally managed to convince himself to eat today? It was December, he knew that this was usually the time that stomach bugs ran rampant, but- but then again there were other possible reasons, and he knew he had to eliminate them before going to Agatha.

 

Casting the spell, his heart fell as he saw the little white light grow brighter. Newt Scamander was pregnant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to be clear, Newt and Grindelwald are in a loving relationship. They both do care about one another.


	28. Chapter 28

He froze. Wait, but he’d had sex with more than one man recently, who-who was the father?

 

He’s had more with Graves, sure, but it was more spread out that the sex he’d had with Gelly (24 times in one week, it was a new record for them) so it was more likely to be him. He needed an aging spell to know how old the fetus was, that would determine who the father was. He’d had sex with Gelly two weeks ago for a period of one week, if the baby was conceived any time after or before that, then it was Graves’s.

 

He believed that he could find one if he looked around the library… but if he used the searcher then Gelly could find out as he was notified every time it was used to make sure that he knew who had what book incase he ever needed the book … maybe he could use his own magic to find the book? He couldn’t use his wand, no, he’d simply have to use wandless magic? Urgh, still too risky. There was- there was one person whom he could ask, but what if it turned out to be that person’s baby?

 

This was all too confusing. _Urgh_.

 

.

 

Swallowing his pride and coming up with an excuse, Newt went to go and visit Graves.

 

“Do you know about ageing spells?” Newt had asked between kisses as Graves got to work undressing him from the waist down (Newt had outright refused to be completely naked in front of the man, even when he had been recovering from his substance abuse. Graves figured it was probably because it made the situation a _lot_ more intimate).

 

“Yeah, we used them all the time during the war, when we didn’t know if recruits were lying about their age.”

 

“Well, we’re having a similar issue,” Newt lied, “Can you recite the spell?”

 

“Why can’t loverboy do it for you?”

 

“It’s complicated.”

 

“What? Some issue come up between you two?”

 

“No, but I don’t wish to burden him.”

 

“ _Annus_ ,” Graves said. “That’s the spell.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Positive. You have to wave your wand in a circular motion- and yes I know what I’m saying and how it sounds but that’s the spell and that’s the motion.”

.

 

“ _Annus_ ,” Newt incanted, rubbing hands over his belly in a circular motion.

 

In glowing letters were written _7 weeks, 4 days, 8 hours, 52 minutes and 32.54 seconds_ wow this spell was specific, but it confirmed his deepest fear. Percival Graves was his baby daddy.


	29. Chapter 29

What was he supposed to do? Break the news to Graves? Hide it? Run away? Time was limited and he had to act quickly or- or he’d be discovered. He couldn’t bear the thought of hurting Gelly like this, it would break the older man’s heart.

 

Should he- should he tell Graves? The baby was over a month a long, soon it would start showing... he could get an abortion? No, he dismissed that thought as soon as it entered his mind, even though he respected other wizard’s rights to do so to themselves he himself couldn’t- couldn’t go through with it, it would hurt too much.

 

.

 

It didn’t take Graves long to notice. He was rubbing his hands up Newt’s abdomen when he felt the small bump, still small enough that nobody could see it in the clothes he wore, but just big enough that one could feel it.

 

Graves stopped what he was doing immediately. “N-Newt, a-are you pregnant?”

 

“I, Um, I,” Tears welled in Newt’s eyes, he’d expected that he’d be found out eventually, but he hadn’t thought that it would be so soon.

 

It was then that Graves did a _very_ un-Graves-like-thing and pulled Newt to him in a hug. Prior, Newt had thought that the extent of the two mens’ relationship was nothing more than just a carnal desire for each other’s bodies, this felt warmer than that though.

 

“Is-is it mine or his?” Graves hadn’t even thought about the odds of him getting Newt pregnant. After all, whilst some male wizards _could_ reproduce, just like females some were barren. _Most_ were barren. It usually ran within a family, and having known that Theseus was barren due to a blood test the older male had had to take prior to joining the war he had been fairly certain that Newt too was barren.

 

“I-It’s yours, i- the ageing spell, it was conceived two months ago, that first time that we…” that first time that we had sex.

 

Anger boiled in Graves as he spun Newt around, pressing him against the nearest wall. “I- you- I told you about that spell two weeks ago. You’ve known for two weeks and you haven’t told me?”

 

A part of Newt knew that he ought to feel guilty, but years of being a member of Grindelwald’s army coupled with his base urge to fight Graves on most things that came out of the man’s mouth had him standing still as a rock, a hard gaze in his eyes.

 

“Why was I supposed to?”

 

“‘Why?’ because its _my_ child.”

 

“So? It’s not that big of a deal. Most baby’s don’t survive past the first three months.”

 

A thought struck in Graves’s mind. There was no way that- even with their ‘perfect’ relationship- Newt had breathed a word about the child to Grindelwald.

 

"Tell me, Mr. Scamander" Graves mouthed along Newt's ear, sending shivers up the younger man's spine, "does Grindelwald know that his prized slut is pregnant with my child?" he ran his hand over the miniscule baby bump.

 

“What’s it to you?” Newt countered, breathing shallowly.

 

“Just, wondering,” Graves made to undo Newt’s shirt, so that he could inspect the skin where _his_ _baby_ was growing, but was promptly stopped by Newt.

 

“I told you,” Newt stared into the eyes of the slightly ragged, muscular, bearded man. “Do _not_ go there.”

 

.

 

It had been three weeks since Graves had found out, and day by day Newt felt the patch of skin underneath which his child was growing get rounder and more pronounced. He would have to switch to baggier clothes soon, he knew that much.

 

He felt his stomach twist every time he talked to Gelly. The British Minister was currently visiting to discuss what was happening in New York with ‘Percival Graves’ and Madam Picquery.

 

He knew he had to act soon, but what was he to do? He felt conflicted, on the one hand he loved and wanted to please his lover, than man he cared about more than anything- but this thing with Graves, this-this horrible, twisted, fucked up thing with the man- and now there’d likely be a child to boot!- it was all so confusing.

 

He walked to the courtyard, completely void of any and all hopes of this ending in anything but disaster. He knew he had to get out of here, but he couldn’t just leave Graves behind (partially because Gelly knew that he and the man were close and would likely use Veritaserum on him to see if he knew why Newt might want to leave and would then get all the dirty details and be killed or something, and Newt did _not_ want Graves’s blood on his hands among other things). Tears brimmed in his eyes as he stared down. He felt something on his coat.

 

He turned so he could see where it was, positive that it was an insect that he needed to flick away. It was green and stick-like… it was a Bowtruckle.

 

A thought occurred to Newt. Magic couldn’t break the shackles that bound Graves, only a key would. And where one lacked a key a Bowtruckle could easily fill its space.

 

“Hey there, little guy,” Newt smiled, lifting the creature up to him. “I need your help.”

 

.

 

Even though the plan to break him and Graves out of Nurmengard seemed daunting, Newt knew he could pull it off. Newt- after the whole alcohol episode- was unable in any way to leave the fortress, a sweet but annoying tactic of Gelly’s to ensure his lover’s personal safety from substances that could harm him.

 

And even if they could just apparate away, Gelly could still easily find him, this place had trackers and guards that were well trained in finding people. No, if they were to stand any chance of escaping, they needed there to be a siege on Nurmengard, which- thanks to the Fidelius Charm- would only be possible if Newt himself willingly divulged the location of Nurmengard.

 

He headed to the Owlery. He remembered someone from his interrogations of Graves and his talks with Gelly. Her name was Tina Goldstein, she was a powerful and competent witch whom Gelly was doing everything and anything to get fired and out of his hair.

 

He knew she was off on holiday with her sister and a man- one of Graves’s cousins and closest trustees- Lucas. Therefore there was no way that Gelly would see the letter.

 

He scribbled down:

 

_Dear Ms. Porpentina Goldstein,_

_I need your help, the man whom you believe to be Mr. Percival Graves is an imposter, the real Percival Graves is locked up in Nurmengard located in the west of Perth. You must hurry, he is using transfiguration so a revelation charm should suffice, gather up your best men for there is no telling how soon Gellert Grindelwald (the man masquerading as Percival Graves) will take to find what he is looking for in New York and raze the bloody country itself._

_-N_

He felt horrible for ratting out his lover to this woman, but he had no alternative.

 

_Don’t worry, Graves, help is on the way._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) this story shouldn't really take more than a few (dozen) more chapters to wrap up, but this is where it starts to get interesting and the tags come into play. Stay tuned!


	30. Chapter 30

Newt waited. He waited and waited and stressed and panicked. It had been two days, what if Gelly found out? He had possibly just signed himself and Graves’s death warrants.

 

Even Graves had seemed to pick up on Newt’s stressful mood, forgoing coitus and asking Newt what was bothering him (he’d become oddly more caring since he found out about the baby, then again he was probably just worried that all the stress would be harmful to the child’s development).

 

Newt saw no use in hiding it and told him. _Everything_.

 

Graves had been stunned. “You're-you're busting me out?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Why?”

 

“He will want to know why I escaped and will likely use veritaserum on you if I leave you here. He’ll find out and probably kill you, I don’t want that to happen.”

 

That was strangely touching. Sure his initial plan had been to guilt trip Newt into helping him escape, but he'd gotten side-tracked when he found out about the baby. Finally, over four months in Nurmengard and he was going to get his revenge in a few days… he would be a free man again. Then those who had aided in this would be brought to justice and he could carry on with his life.

 

A few short days indeed.

.

 

_Dear N,_

_We are currently on the run from who we believe is, indeed, Mr. Gellert Grindelwald himself. My sister and I are gathering some troops to join us on this raid. We expect to be there on the 3 rd of February, in half a week’s time. We have sent you a hat and request for you to enchant it as we have on the other end so that it may serve as a portkey._

_Kindly,_

_Tina Goldstein_

Newt was elated and immediately got to work on activating the charms that had been placed on the hat. He was no fool and knew that Graves would wish to persecute him for all that had happened at Nurmengard, but his plan was to free Graves, get out of the castle doors using the battle as camouflage, and apparate somewhere nobody would ever find him (its not as though the baby was far along enough that he would risk harming him or her through apparition, after all, everyone knew that it was safe before the sixth month).

 

He’d be fine. His baby would be fine. Gelly would eventually escape and find someone who deserved him more than Newt had ever, so he’d be fine. Graves’d be alive so he’d assume that the man would also be fine… everyone would be fine.

 

.

 

February 3 1927

 

MACUSAn Aurors fought one of their biggest, bloodiest battles yet. Newt had made his move the moment he heard the first spell cast. He knew that Gelly would be apparating home to join the fight at any moment. He raced to the cells dodging spells and flying bodies, the Bowtruckle (whom he’d affectionately named Pickett after much deliberation as Bowtruckles were, effectively, lock-pickers) in his coat pocket, and had flung open Graves’s cell door.

 

He placed Pickett on Graves’s feet shackles as he himself undid the hands.

 

“Has it started?” Graves asked, having also waited quite a while for this day to come.

 

“Yes,” Newt said, helping the man up.

 

“Good,” they bolted out the door.

 

“Run to the doors, you’ll find-”

 

Newt froze. There, standing at the end of the hallway, was his lover, and boy did he look mad.

.

 

“You!” Grindelwald pointed his wand at Graves. “You! I knew that leaving you alive was a _mistake!_ ”

 

“Sweetheart, please,” his lover’s eyes brimmed with tears, sweet Newt, he had no doubt in his mind that his lover was being manipulated but the betrayal had still hurt as though he had acquired a million paper cuts and was being repeatedly drenched in lemon juice.

 

He watched Graves, slightly weak and smaller than he remembered him to be, stand slightly in front of Newt, and it set his blood on fire. _This_ man was the reason that everything had turned to hell, that his own lover was betraying him, and _this man would **pay**_.

 

He raised his wand in Graves’s direction, hearing Newt’s pleas only made him want to hurt the man more.

 

He didn’t really understand what had happened next. How it had happened. Why it had happened. Only that the minute he screamed ‘ _Crucio_ ’ there was a blur, a small movement in front of Graves, and the next thing he knew, he saw Newt’s heavenly face in severe pain as the younger male fell to the floor, writhing about in pure agony as Graves completely began to freak out, dropping to the floor and laying a hand on _his_ [Grindelwald’s] (unconscious) lover’s shoulder as the spell died almost instantly.

 

He felt someone apprehend him, but rather than fight he just let them take him. What had he just done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun-dun DUN! And just like that, Newt's chances of escaping have flown out of the window… Sadly, we won't know what happens next until after the 10th of August *Snape voice* 'Pity...'


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) so it's been a while since I posted, but that was because we were in the middle of exams and I was done writing all my humanities and thought- hey, we've got sciences and maths left so why don't we study for those in part by removing anything and everything remotely enriching from our lifestyle (Which didn't really end up happening).
> 
> Sorry, I don't mean to ramble. On with the interesting part :)))

They had apparated to MACUSA. Graves had scooped Newt up and whisked him off to MACUSA in a hurry, desperate to get the younger male to a hospital facility despite the risk of splinching due to the distance being travelled. He _needed_ Newt to be safe, he needed the baby to be safe. Depositing the man whom he had slept with into the arms of a nurse who was waiting attentively for any potential fatalities.

 

The guards at Nurmengard had been apprehended, not many deaths on their side, thank the gods. He felt bad about not knowing the two girls who had died, Tina had told him that they’d been new recruits. Lila Ross and Harrow Spindlefire, neither had been a member of an Original 12 family, so there wouldn’t be hell to pay, but his heart was still full of remorse for the two girls- both only 20- who had died to get his sad ass out of Nurmengard.

 

It brought him great joy to know that eight of Grindelwald’s little followers had been killed, a morbid form of recompense for the loss of the two young females.

 

On top of that, it seemed as though Yales would need a new leg and Lucas had a bit of facial bruising. Tina herself appeared to be sporting a broken hip and- he froze, what had Queenie Goldstein, a freaking civilian, been doing at a battle like this?

 

Oh, Goldstein was _so_ going to get an earful about this later. He frowned in confusion as he felt nurses rush him to a bed as well. He wasn’t hurt or anything?

 

“We need to check his vitals,” he heard one say, “See if there’s been any damage done.”

 

A few spells and some physical examinations proved Percival to be well enough but in dire need of food. “Goodness, were they starving him or something?”

 

Maybe he shouldn’t have pissed off guard no.3 and no.5, they brought him food more often than the others and he always rolled his eyes at their reluctance to be anywhere near him.

 

“I-I pissed off a few of the guards,” Percival chuckled.

 

“We’ll also need a balm for the bruising around his face.” Oh right, when Newt had punch…ed…him… where was Newt? A cold wave of panic hit him. OK, sure, maybe Newt wasn’t by a longshot someone whom Graves ideally saw himself having a child with, but that didn’t mean that the young man- the little brother of Theseus _fucking_ Scamander, whom he would be calling in shortly- wasn’t currently pregnant with his child.

 

“Where’s Newt?”

 

“Who?” the nurse examining him frowned.

 

“Oh, sorry, uh, the young man whom I brought in with me.”

 

“Doctor’s running some tests on him. He seems to be in pretty bad shape, but I’m sure we can rectify most of his wounds.”

 

“Wounds?” please, oh please, gods above don’t let there have been blood, _especially_ around his pants.

 

“Yeah, but it’s mostly healed, just some old scarring, looks pretty nasty though,” she smiled sadly. “He a friend of yours?”

 

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” OK, that was a lie, but the man was still carrying his child and he doubted that the nurse would be very willing to provide information if he appeared hostile when talking about Newt.

 

“That’s tough. Don’t worry though, I’m sure he’ll be OK.”

 

.

 

Graves had made Picquery allow him to head the interrogations.

 

“I was locked up for nearly five months whilst a madman ran around MACUSA parading as me, you _owe_ me.” Had been his argument.

 

“Just don’t get too aggressive, I’d hate to have to add ‘killed a prisoner’ to your CV.”

 

He had made sure that Grindelwald and Newt were as far apart as MACUSA could possibly keep them. He was no expert on love, but he was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to Cruciatus your lover, even if you were aiming at someone else and your partner had jumped in front of them. He felt a pang of guilt. Newt had tried to stop Grindelwald’s wrath, he had no doubt in his mind that Grindelwald- being as powerful as he was- had cast a spectacularly destructive curse and that Newt had probably known it as well before he had made the jump.

 

The fool had probably gotten the child killed.

 

“Here’s the medical report on the redhead,” the doctor handed over a purple manila folder, “And Grindelwald,” he handed over a white manila folder.

 

He nodded and thanked the man, walking fast to his desk. Picquery had insisted that he take some time off, but he refused to. Not until all of this was over. Not until he had gotten his revenge for the months that he had spent locked up, for the fact that Grindelwald had manipulated his family- had _visited_ them with _his_ face…

 

He nearly threw the white folder off the desk in his haste to read Newt’s medical report. He scanned through the list of ailments. Neck bruising, back lacer-lacerations? That was- no, that was wrong. He couldn’t remember a time when Newt could have possibly gotten whipped or anything, Newt _had_ gone out on a raid with Grindelwald, but Graves highly doubted that the man would let anyone in the world harm his lover, he may have detested the man, but even he knew that Grindelwald loved Newt more than love itself.

 

He moved back to the part about the neck. Perhaps Newt had fallen or… he froze in shock. _Dark magic_ was identified as the source. He read closely. _Though we are unable to pinpoint the exact time we estimate it to be roughly a decade old_ something wasn’t right. Something most definitely was _not_ right.

 

Through the rest of the folder he shook a little. There were small fractures in the bones which were old and apparently were still being healed with magic, cuts and marks and basically the majority of Newt’s back was a warzone. The whip marks were old but they seemed to have been made permanent with _very powerful_ dark magic… wait-

 

Graves’s blood turned to ice and he nearly vomited. These things were all dated to roughly a decade ago, didn’t-didn’t Newt once mention that he and Grindelwald had been together for seven years?

 

His head spun and his stomach knotted and twisted around in dread.

 

They were together for seven years, yes, he remembered that…

 

But Newt Scamander had disappeared from the face of the earth _nine_ years ago.

 

 


	32. Chapter 32

Interrogation time. Graves hadn’t wanted to admit to Picquery that there was a possibility of the interrogations taking a bit of a personal turn, but then again, he figured that she’d assumed as much when she allowed him to head this (not that MACUSA had much power over the Magical Security division).

 

He had questions, he wanted answers. The medical report had mentioned that Newt was still pregnant which, to him, was a great relief. Despite the effects of the undoubtedly strong cruciatus curse (which he was sure hurt a lot, regardless of the fact that he himself had never endured one) the baby, who had passed the three month mark, was still very much alive.

 

He visited Newt at the hours he knew the man would likely be asleep (He was not abusing his work relationship with Tina Goldstein by getting her sister to tell him when Newt was asleep). It was custom for a healer to be put in charge of pregnant prisoners, and he had used this to ensure that Newt had the best medical care available for the child.

 

Now, for his first interrogation he had Grindelwald. Gellert Grindelwald, the man who had orchestrated his kidnapping and as such had, in essence, brought about his own demise. The man whose lover he had slept with and impregnated, that last part brought a slight smirk to his face. Revenge was sweet.

 

He looked through the one-way mirror and saw Grindelwald sitting at a table, his hands bound and staring down.

 

He walked into the room, a pen and parchment that was charmed to record every word exchange suddenly came to life, pausing and waiting for the first person to say something.

 

“Hello, Mr. Grindelwald,” MACUSAn etiquette required him to be formal during this interrogation, but he could still turn up the heat if his superiors (aka himself) deemed it necessary. Really, the only rule other than not letting it get too personal was that he wasn’t allowed to physically harm the man, otherwise he could do anything- summon a legilimens, if he could get a legal passing he’d be allowed to use Veritaserum on Grindelwald, you name it he could do it (hexes were, obviously, off the table though).

 

“Hello, Mr. Graves,” Grindelwald growled out. “Having fun?”

 

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Graves ignored Grindelwald’s question, “Now,” he pulled out a booklet containing all the crimes that MACUSA wanted Grindelwald tried for, “Were you-”

 

“Is it satisfying?” Grindelwald interrupted. “Knowing that you managed to convince a harmless man at his weakest moment to turn his back on those who actually cared for him, so that you could escape?”

 

Graves knew, obviously, that Grindelwald was going to keep diverting the conversation back to Newt, and, given that he himself wanted some answers about the two year gap, it was probably a good idea to use this to his advantage.

 

“Cared for him?” Graves spat, time to test out theory no.1 “You completely alienated him from his family and friends, that’s not love, that’s abuse!”

 

“He couldn’t know,” Grindelwald ground out. “It would destroy him to know.”

 

Theory no. 1= correct. Grindelwald was, in fact, the reason that Newt had no contact with the outside world for the past nine years.

 

“Couldn’t know what? That there were people on the outside that were looking for him? Tell me, Mr. Grindelwald, did it give you pleasure locking someone up in a prison knowing that they were under the allusion that you loved him?”

 

“He was under no allusion,” Grindelwald was furious and Graves smirked to himself, the plan was working, Grindelwald was unconsciously giving Graves pieces of information, hmmm… maybe he _should_ get that Veritaserum warrant. “I did love him- I _do_ love him,” Graves ignored the strange feeling he got from those words. “But his mind is _fragile_ and things like this could cause it break, you fool! Is that what you want? In addition to manipulating him, do you also want his mind to crumble to pieces, will you feel fulfilled then?”

 

“What do you mean, _fall to pieces_?”

 

“Newt- his memory, everything that happened to him, he needs a potion to keep his memories from coming back. If it isn’t administered to him soon then there’s no telling what effect it could have on him.”

 

Or what it could to to the baby, Graves frowned. “What happened?”

 

“Things. _Horrible_ things, and I’ll tell you all the details if you give Newt something to keep his memories locked out. It needs to be administered immediately, you know what intensive pain can do to a memory wipe harm.”

 

Yes, he did. He'd known several Aurors who had had their memories locked away and were tortured in an attempt to bring those memories back by dark wizards.

 

But though Grindelwald was desperate, he wasn’t sure that the man would keep his word once the potion was administered.

 

“Not so fast, first I need to know what happened to him,” Graves ground out.

 

Grindelwald sighed, head down, defeated. “Well, Newt and I have been together for seven years… but I sent men to kidnap him nine years ago to send a message to his brother who was really doing a number on my West European followers.

 

“We figured that he probably knew something that would get help us get an advantage over Theseus- perhaps a weak spot, a flaw of his, a bad habit we could exploit- plus, we figured that he wouldn’t believe that we had Newt unless Newt shared some personal information with us, but Newt completely refused to. We tortured him… we tortured him a _lot_ … it was then that some of the men suggested that if magic wasn’t enough to break him, we may have more success trying something more,” Grindelwald’s breath hitched and he looked as though he was about to cry, “Something more _muggle-themed_.”

 

Graves started to feel a little sick. The torture would most definitely explain the strange marks on Newt’s upper body, as well as the scar underneath his right knee that he’d acquired when he ‘fell out of a tree as a child.’ And- and he had a good idea about what Grindelwald meant by ‘muggle-themed’.

 

“So… so they raped him,” Graves took note of how Grindelwald was beginning to hesitate. He’d seen this plenty of times when someone did something to someone they cared about, they’d try and minimize their role in the victims suffering, and although he wanted to interject he understood that if he stopped Grindelwald now he may never get the opportunity to hear the whole story. But for now, Grindelwald’s actions were enough for him to understand that ‘they’ really meant ‘we’.

 

“And it seemed to have a greater effect on him than the curses, but then… but then he-he,” Grindelwald was going to break down, Graves could see that plain as day, “We-we didn’t know, it’s not unheard of, but it’s not common.”

 

“What happened?” Graves pressed.

 

Grindelwald looked up at him, an expression of absolute hate spread across his face. “He got pregnant.”

 

Graves froze. Well, it wasn’t like he didn’t know that Newt could get pregnant, after all, the man was carrying his own fetus, but he hadn’t known that Newt had been pregnant before.

 

And Newt had never mentioned any- oh… that was-that was, uh… he felt tears pricking at his own eyes.

 

“It-It was mine,” oh. O-oh.

 

“What happened?” Graves pressed, trying to seem threatening when he knew that the tears he was shedding gave away his true state of mind.

 

“He was- he was three months in and he, uh, he lost the baby,” Grindelwald finished pathetically. “It was the last straw. He was so broken after that, he wasn’t eating, he couldn’t sleep, didn’t leave bed, tried to hang himself once or twice, tried jumping off a tower- he needed to be Obliviated, and if you allow him to remember anything that happened he will _die_.”

 

And so would the baby.

 

.

 

Graves had remembered, feeling a slight churning sensation in his stomach, that during the first two nights, the nurse watching over Newt had mentioned his sleep being rather restless.

 

Now, as he walked over to the hospital wing, he knew why. Newt’s memories were coming back and there was only a small window of time wherein the administered potion would work. Praying that he hadn’t missed it, he asked the receptionist of the department if he could please see a potion maker. It was then that he felt a small tap on the back of his shoulder and turned around in surprise.

 

“Percy,” he was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug by at least three people. Those people turned out to be Margie, Ed and Theo[dore- he refused to call his incredibly(who he most _definitely_ did not have a secret soft-spot for) annoying brother by his nickname].

 

“What are you all doing here?”

 

“Well, after you were found, Emma was discovered and we were all taken to hospital. We got out a few hours ago and we wanted to make sure that you were OK.” Margie explained.

 

“I’m fine,” he said softly, “How’re you?”

 

“Good,” she frowned, “You’ve lost a lot of weight- what, were they starving you in there?”

 

“No, but I pissed off some of the guards in charge of giving me food,” he smirked.

 

Ed sighed, shaking his head. “You always let your temper get the best of you.”

 

“She’s here,” the receptionist interrupted, and the lady in charge of potion making in MACUSA came forward. “Percival,” she greeted kindly, though there was confusion painted all over her face, “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

 

“Hello, Cynthia,” he smiled, “I was looking for a potion that could perhaps rectify a memory charm.”

 

“Of course, if you don’t mind my asking, however, what do you need it for?”

 

“A suspect,” Graves replied. “They seem to be in a rather fragile state of mind, I’ve been informed that their sanity is being held together by a memory charm, and I suppose it wouldn’t help the case advance if the memory charm were to wear off.”

 

“Indeed, but,” she paused. “I wouldn’t advise taking these long-term.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, they can be rather harm to the health of the person. You might be safe though, provided the person doesn’t have any terminal diseases or isn’t pregnant.”

 

“Or isn’t pregnant?”

 

“Well, yes. There are ingredients in these potions that would kill a growing baby within seconds.”

 

Fuck. Regardless of which way this went, that baby probably wouldn’t make it.

He had to brace himself for the possibility of losing the child.

 

.

 

Graves apparated into his apartment, dog-tired. After being told the unfortunate news about the potion, he had gone out for lunch with his family-Eva, Alora, Millie, Timmothy, Sammy, Naomi, Bobby and Kallistope were all there as well. He heard someone apparate into his apartment and looked up to lock eyes with none other than Theseus Scamander, tears in his friend’s eyes.

 

“Is it true?” Theseus asked.

 

“Yes,” Theseus looked as though he was about to collapse.

 

“I-I need to sit down.” His friend said, practically falling as Graves quickly summoned a chair to catch his fall.

 

Graves groaned. He hadn’t even considered what Theseus would do- how Theseus would feel- when he learned the truth about what had happened in 1917.

 

He had a feeling that his friend wouldn’t be able to handle it quite as well as others might expect him to, and that was what _really_ scared him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter big bro!


	33. Chapter 33

“My brother is- _alive_ … and he’s spent the past nine years with Grindelwald?” Theseus said, pale, pale skin and looking rather ill.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I,” he hesitated, before pulling out his copy of the interview. “I think this might explain it. Today was my first interview with Grindelwald.

 

He watched his old friend skim through the sheets before stopping abruptly. He must’ve reached the part where Grindelwald confessed. He watched his best-friend’s eyes well up with tears.

 

“He was- he was raped… he got pregnant,” Theseus said, in a stupor, “I didn’t even know he could carry… oh my god,” Graves tried to take the papers away from Theseus, yes the man needed to know, but he was beginning to think that it may be a little too much to handle in one night.

 

“No!” Theseus shouted. “I need to know what else this monster did.”

 

At long last. “You-you gave him the potion, right? Please tell me you did.”

 

Graves sighed, shaking his head.

 

“What the bloody hell do you mean?” Theseus growled, launching to his feet, tears in his eyes. “This could kill him! _Will_ kill him!”

 

“The potion has harmful side-effects for fetuses.”

 

“So- wait, is he, is Newt…?” Theseus didn’t have to finish the sentence, Graves’s lack of eye contact and downwards tilt of the head told him everything that he needed to know. “You bastard, how could you!?”

 

“What do you mean?” Theseus was good but Graves couldn’t possibly understand how on earth the other man knew.

 

“You’re my brother’s baby father, aren’t you? If you weren’t you wouldn’t look so guilty! How dare you sleep with him!?”

 

Graves dodged a hex thrown in his direction. “Theseus, calm down, please. I needed something to drive a wedge in their relationship, otherwise I’d still be there and you’d still be wondering if Newt was alive or dead!”

 

Theseus stopped dead in his tracks. “This is all my fault, isn’t it? I’m a lousy brother.”

 

Graves stepped forwards to hold his friend. “No, Theseus, no you’re not. Newt’s lucky to have you.”

 

“No, he’s _not_! Grindelwald did this to get to revenge on _me_ , and _my little brother_ was the one who suffered!” Theseus was getting hysterical. “Why’d he do that to Newt?”

 

“I-I don’t know Grindelwald’s full reasoning,” Graves said, wrapping Theseus in a hug, “But I _do_ know that this is in no way your fault. And I’m sure that when Newt remembers he’ll agree with me.”

 

“When he,” Theseus blinked, “When he remembers… gods, this is going to be difficult for him.”

 

“It will be,” Graves admitted, “But he’ll have his big brother and I think that’ll really help ease the burn.”

 

“I hope so.” To an extent, Graves found himself hoping for the same thing.

 

.

 

Newt was dreaming yet again.

 

_The same dark, empty surroundings._

_“Let me show you…”_

_“Show me what?” Newt shouted out, “What do you want to show me?”_

_“Come.”_

_A bright light shone._

_“Let me show you… embrace the light, Newt, welcome it…”_

_Newt sighed, not like he had an alternative. He hadn’t slept in weeks and maybe if he listened to the voice… maybe it would finally leave him alone?_

 

Newt’s body spasmed, he thrashed around, groaning and the full-out screaming. His nurse frantically fumbled for her keys and opened his cell. She rushed to him and tried to wake him up but his eyes wouldn’t open. She ran to the medical ward to find someone who would help her, she needed to get him to the hospital wing and wasn’t sure how levitating him would go given that he was thrashing around so violently, and even then the prisoners’ block was magic-proof.

 

“Help, I need help. The prisoner, the pregnant one, there’s something wrong, hurry!”

 

Two male nurses followed her as she ran back to the cell that Newt was being held in. They helped her pick him up and rush him to the medical wing. They called in a doctor to run some tests on him.

 

“He’s in a deep sleep,” the doctor informed. “I don’t think its safe to wake him up.”

 

“What do we do?” Newt’s nurse asked. “He has an interrogation tomorrow with Mister Graves.”

 

“We’ll need to inform him.”

 

.

 

It started. Graves didn’t know whether or not to tell Theseus, but he ultimately caved. Theseus was Newt’s brother, he deserved to know. Which is why he arrived at MACUSA at 3 am, dressed pristinely in his suit whilst Theseus stumbled along after him half-asleep with his shirt on backwards.

 

“Newt?” he whispered, taking in the sight of his younger brother. His younger brother whom he had not seen in over nine years. His younger brother who had grown up _so much_!

 

His younger brother who had bruises on his neck. His younger brother who had been raped and tortured and _used_ by a madman. His younger brother who was pregnant with his best-friend’s child… actually, he may want to re-evaluate his list of favorite people, Graves was lucky he was at the top of the list or he’d have been _crucio_ ed the moment Theseus found out.

 

Come to think about it, Theseus could think of at least one person who deserved to have the Cruciatus Curse placed on them, but he knew that Percival might get into trouble if he did it. He’d keep his anger in check for the sake of his best-friend/neice or nephew’s dad. He briefly wondered how on earth Newt and Graves were going to split the baby’s time.

 

He really hoped that it was a boy. A _straight_ boy. He had his hands full keeping men away from Newt, it would be even harder if there were two people to protect… or if the girl was lesbian, that would be fine too, just as long as he didn’t have to deal with any perverted men leering at his niece/nephew.

 

He watched Graves stroke Newt’s cheek absent-mindedly before forcefully pulling his hand down and groaning in frustration. “So what you’re telling me is that he won’t be awake by tomorrow?”

 

“No, sir,” The nurse said. “The doctor is concerned that Mister Scamander may fall into a coma if this continues.”

 

Shit. Graves suddenly felt very guilty. Perhaps Grindelwald had been right, but he was so worried about the baby that he hadn’t really stopped to think about what could happen to Newt when his memories came back.

 

“I-I think we need to give him the potion,” Graves admitted, finally.

 

“No,” Theseus interjected. “Forget his memories killing him, there’s no way Newt would be able to live knowing how the baby died.”

 

Well, if Newt was going to die either way at least the baby ought to live, surely. And besides, once the baby was born Graves could always re-administer the memory charms afterwards, surely? He hesitated, but that would make him no better than Grindelwald. Grindelwald was _wrong_ , despite everything that had happened to Newt, the younger male had the right to know what had happened, he had the right to make his own decisions. Newt had needed help when the issue had arose, not a memory charm. And now there were a lot of problems that needed to be dealt with.

 

He felt angry with Grindelwald for this, for doing all of this. Newt didn’t deserve _any_ of this. And now there was a chance that his offspring may suffer for Grindelwald’s mistakes as well.

 

He glanced at his friend. His heartbroken friend who had finally been reunited with his younger brother after nine years. His damaged, _pregnant_ brother who had spent the past nine years living with Gellert _fucking_ Grindelwald. His baby brother who was _still_ emotionally attached to a man who had clearly been abusing him.

 

It made him want to kill the man, but he knew that he couldn’t do anything of the sort. Picquery would have him kicked out of MACUSA for allowing his emotions to get the better of him… but maybe he could ask Theseus? Or Imperius someone to do it whilst wielding someone else’s wand?

 

Glancing back at Newt he let out a sigh and placed his head in his right hand. Oh well, if Newt wasn’t feeling up to an interview tomorrow, then he supposed that he ought to just have another one with Grindelwald.

 

.

 

“You _bastard_!” Grindelwald spat, we had a deal!

 

Graves did his best to keep his composure, but the man was seriously starting to get on his nerves.

 

“I know, Mr. Grindelwald, but I was made aware of some potentially hazardous side-effects.”

 

“Side-effects? _Side-effects!?”_ Grindelwald was completely outraged. “What side-effect could be worse than death!?”

 

The loss of a child, perhaps?

 

Still, Graves refrained from telling Grindelwald. He figured that Newt deserved to be the one to tell him when he was well enough to. He’d talked to the doctor that morning, and Newt was most _definitely_ not going into a coma. When the doctor had asked what might have been the cause of Newt’s sleep problem, Graves had explained the situation and the doctor had seemed relieved, telling Graves that he’d seen this before and not to worry because it was normal when someone began to regain their memories.

 

Then again, he’d also said that Newt’s restlessness would only grow and his nightmares would get worse and worse until it all came back to him. That didn’t matter all that much to Graves though, he was more preoccupied with the well-being of the baby, choosing to allow Theseus to be the one doting on Newt who was expected to wake up sometime that day if the progress that the consciousness monitor spell was any indication.

 

“Now, let me repeat myself,” he’d submitted the request for the use of Veritaserum to the department of Justice, even though _technically_ he had the power to execute the request himself, just because he wanted to prove to Picquery that he was indeed playing by the book. “Where were you on the 7th of October 1922?”

 

“At Nurmengard, with Newt.”

 

“Is that true, or are you simply choosing to use someone who is currently unconscious as your alibi until you can think of a better one?”

 

“What’s it to you? And anyways, it doesn’t matter, I’ll be out of here in a few days, _with Newt_.” Oh no you won’t, Graves thought silently to himself.

 

“Alright, let me repeat myself,” Graves said, this was going to be a long day, “Where were you on the 7th of October 1922?”

 

.

 

Newt was awake, it seemed. Not that it mattered to Graves, who had been avoiding him like the plague whenever he was awake ever since they arrived at MACUSA. That meant that Newt’s interrogation could be held today then. ‘splendid’.

 

.

 

He had decided to interview them together. Maybe-maybe being around Grindelwald for a little bit would be better for Newt regardless for how irrationally jealous that made Graves feel.

 

Besides, he knew that they were going to have to interview the two together and he’d rather it be sooner than later. Who knew, maybe seeing Newt would be all Graves needed to break Grindelwald, the younger male was far more evidently pregnant now than he had been the last time Grindelwald had seen him, then again he was slightly thinner due to not being able to eat proper food the first and second time that he was unconscious so the bulge was slightly more prominent.

 

He looked in through the one-way mirror and saw the two. The mirror was charmed so that literally _anyone_ could press their ear up against it and hear what was going on in the room. He had unfortunately been unable to prove that Grindelwald was a big enough threat to have a guard in the room or have much more protection than an anti-magic bracelet placed on the man, but he had Goldstein and Fontaine standing right outside the door in case anyone tried any funny business.

 

He ovbserved the two, slowly moving to place his ear on the glass.

.

 

Grindelwald stroked Newt’s cheek, as though it were one of the softest most luxurious fabrics on the market. “I’ve missed you so much, dear.”

 

“I-I’ve missed you too,” he thought? Ever since the dreams had started he’d felt slightly more and more repulsed by the man’s touch for some reason.

 

“I’m-I’m so sorry, what you’re going through- what you're _about_ to go through, I'm sorry I couldn’t protect you,” Grindelwald said, tears shining in his eyes.

 

“Don’t be, I’m sorry that I lied to you… I’m sorry that I led them to you.”

 

“It’s OK,” Grindelwald said, finally. “It’s my fault for leaving you alone with him. Newt, I hope that you know that I’m not mad at you for this.”

 

“I know… but you might be mad at me for something else,” Newt sighed, defeated. “Sweetheart, I’m pregnant… it’s-it’s his.”

 

Newt watched Grindelwald still. “O-Oh. H-how did you, when did you two-?”

 

“Sleep together? When I was recovering from my addiction,” Newt said, looking at the floor, “And you were at MACUSA.”

 

“That bastard,” Grindelwald said, an angry expression on his face. “He’s practically a rapist.”( _Oh really_ , Graves thought, _I’d beg to differ on that one)_.

 

“I didn’t really leave him with much of a choice,” Newt said, “I-I think it was more me m-making him do it than h-him making me do it.” ( _nope, I’m pretty sure it was both of us)_.

 

Grindelwald sat in silence for about a minute, clearly at a loss as to what he should say. Finally, he asked “Why?”

 

At the time Newt wasn’t sure, so he was surprised to hear his own voice say, “I-I don’t know. I’m sorry, it’s just, where was this relationship going anyways? We’ve been together _seven years_ , and we’re still only ‘boyfriends’. I don’t know why I did what I did, maybe it was the liquor, maybe it was because I f-felt hurt that you ch-cheated on me? But I did what I did and I’m sorry but it happened.” (Graves blinked from the other side of the mirror. He himself hadn’t been entirely sure why they’d done it, but hearing this made him feel a mixture of pity and a little anger. He’d tormented Newt relentlessly over the possibility that Grindelwald was seeing other people, but he’d had no idea that it had actually happened. He froze. Wait, was this why- holy shit, was _that_ the reason Newt went on his little alcohol binge!? He was going to kill the man!)

 

And boy did it hurt Grindelwald to hear Newt say those words. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box (Graves frowned wondering how on earth his Aurors had left it with the man).

 

“I can’t hate myself enough for sleeping with her,” Grindelwald said, “But I _did_ intend to move my relationship with you along. For a long time, but I wanted to wait until after we’d finished making this world a safer place for wizards.”

 

(Graves watched from his side of the mirror, his hands gripping the ledge so tight his knuckles were slowly beginning to turn white. He was _this_ close to going in there and blowing the whole thing, but he knew that it would be a mistake. He needed to fully understand the state of their relationship if he wanted to be able to exploit it and make either of them talk).

 

“I-I’m so sorry.”

 

“Don’t be, dear. This is all my fault,” Grindelwald said. He glanced at Newt, who despite everything he still cared for, someone whom he had loved for seven years, and leaned in.

 

(Graves watched in horror as Grindelwald kissed Newt. Perhaps it was time to intervene?)

 

Grindelwald felt the last remnants of his heart shatter. Newt hadn’t flinched or moved back when he’d kissed him or anything, but he hadn’t kissed back either. Opting to simply freeze, his eyes shut tight… Grindelwald sat back just as Graves stepped into the room.

 

“Are you ready?” he questioned the two.

 

“You bloody, fucking bastard,” Grindelwald snarled, tears in his eyes, “Mark my words _Percival_ ,” he practically spat the auror’s name out, “Once I get out of here I will find you and the death curse will be a _fucking_ blessing to you!”

 

“I’m sure, Gellert,” Percival said, dryly, “But for now you are under MACUSA’s custody and I would appreciate it if you would keep the profanities to a minimum. Mr. Scamander here will be being interviewed by Miss Porpentina Goldstein, you will be being interviewed by me as per the norm.”

 

“Fuck you, I have nothing to say to you,” Grindelwald growled.

 

“I beg to differ,” Graves said calmly, motioning behind him as the door opened. “Lucas, hold him down.”

 

“What- let go of me! _I’ll kill you **all**_!” Grindelwald screamed.

 

Lucas walked into the room and pinched held Grindelwald down as Percival walked towards him, ignoring Newt’s confused pleas to please stop whatever Graves was doing and to please not harm him. _I’m not going to_ , Graves thought _, but what’s it to you what I do? Even if I was going to hurt him he’s more than done enough to warrant it_.

 

Graves uncapped the vial that he had been carrying with him. He poured the clear liquid down Grindelwald’s throat, quickly placing his hand over the man’s mouth and pinching Grindelwald’s nose to cut off his supply of oxygen. Grindelwald’s skin was beginning to discolour before the man finally gasped for air, involuntarily ingesting the potion.

 

Graves looked up at Lucas, who had let the defeated man go, Grindelwald slumping into his chair, gasping for breath and looking utterly exhausted. “Please escort Mr. Scamander to his interrogation.”

 

Lucas nodded, taking Newt by the forearm and leading him out of the interrogation room they were in to the one next door.

 

“Hello, Newt.”

 

“Hello, Ma’am.”


	34. Chapter 34

The interrogation was long and intense. Newt had a nurse on the inside with him, Ms. Goldstein had the man that had brought him into the room (Lucas?).

 

Ms. Goldstein had asked him about Grindelwald’s plans in New York- like he hadn’t already (arrogantly) told Graves _everything-_ had inquired into the nature of his relationship with ‘Mr. Grindelwald’- he’d nearly rolled his eyes- had then proceeded to ask even more irrelevant questions such as ‘Why did you send that letter?’, ‘How long ago did you capture Mr. Graves?’, ‘Are any of the prisoners we’ve acquired Imperiused?’, ‘Have you ever joined Mr. Grindelwald on a raid?’ but it didn’t really surprise him, he’d figured they’d probably want to question his ex-lover on the harder stuff. After all, he was Gellert Grindelwald, and Newt was just someone who had randomly turned up after nearly a… a decade? He was pretty sure that was the amount of time.

 

Besides, he doubted she wanted to give him too much stress. Not when he was carrying Graves’s child… he wondered how many people Graves had told- probably none- despite having tormented Newt for days about not telling Gelly- though he supposed that he hardly had a right to call him that after everything- about the child.

 

The interrogation ended after 2 hours of relentless quizzing over trivial events and Newt was escorted back to his cell.

 

.

 

Graves and Theseus had both agreed that it would probably be best for the Scamander brothers to hold off their reunion for a while, not wanting to risk Newt’s memories flooding back too quickly.

 

Theseus had asked to be present at Grindelwald’s next interrogation and- after a lengthy argument about why watching from the one-way mirror wasn’t good enough- _hesitating_ , Graves handed him an invisibility cloak and warned him not to get involved until after he had talked to Picquery about allowing the Ministry to conduct interrogations on Grindelwald as well, given how much of a ruckus he had caused in Europe. He was sure he’d get it within days, but it meant that Theseus would also have to send an owl to the Ministry of Magic.

 

.

 

Theseus stuck to the corner of the room, as Graves had instructed him. But every time Grindelwald spoke Theseus wanted to scream _‘Crucio’_ despite the fact that he would _so_ get fired for doing it.

 

This was the man who had tortured his brother. The man who had, by all accounts, _raped_ his brother. Had manipulated his brother into loving him. Had wiped his brother’s memories- had-had almost had a _child_ with his brother!... and despite all of that, he had had the gall to go and cheat on his brother with a woman.

 

He wanted Gellert Grindelwald _dead_ , which was why he hoped that he stayed in the USA. Back home in Britain, Grindelwald would be sentenced to Azkaban prison, which was horrible but knowing Grindelwald the man would be out of there within days. Here, however, in MACUSA, Grindelwald could be delivered the death penalty, and Theseus would never have to see the man who had been so ruthless to his brother ever again.

 

Never have to see the man who broke his family’s hearts ever again. The man who, unfortunately, their father never got to see brought to justice. Their father who had passed away out of grief a year into Newt’s disappearance, having been unable to sleep or eat normally.

 

Thankfully, their mother had managed to hold herself together a lot better than either two Scamander men, insisting that Newt wasn’t dead until they found a corpse. And he supposed that it helped that after Paul Scamander’s death Judith had had her siblings to help comfort her.

 

“What were you doing in the US on the 26th of December?”

 

“Like you don’t know,” Grindelwald spat.

 

“I need a statement,” Graves drawled, bored out of his mind.

 

“Fine. _I_ was busy having sex with Newt Scamander, while he was pregnant with _your_ child,” It may have been petty and slightly immature, but it wasn’t a lie. It had taken them a small number of hours to decimate the muggle village and after that they had made love. _Repeatedly_. But they _both_ knew that that wasn’t the timeframe that Graves had been inquiring about.

 

Theseus clenched his fists, walking towards the man but, despite the fact that not even Graves could see him, the man glanced in Theseus’s direction pointedly and Theseus froze. He had to remind himself that he was potentially risking Graves’s job here, if he wanted revenge it was best to do it on his own record and leave Percy out of it. He had to remind himself that he’d be interviewing Grindelwald from next week as both Madam Picquery and the Minister of Magic had allowed him to interrogate the man.

 

Though the Minister had warned Theseus not to get too personal. While it was true, Grindelwald was a monster, Theseus’s personal ties to the man had placed him under intense scrutiny by both Wizarding organizations and was reminded that one unprofessional move could cost him his job.

 

“That’s not the time frame I’m referring to.”

 

“Why don’t you ask Newt to tell you? Seems he’s already told you everything else.”

 

“Mr. Grindelwald, please,” Graves said. “We are simply trying to get the facts in place so that we may proceed with the trial.”

 

“Trial?” Grindelwald scoffed. “You and I both know that I’ll be out of here in no time, that you’re wasting your time on this, so how about I offer you a counterproposal. I’ll tell you what you want to know, and in exchange- despite the fact that you’ve already proved yourself untrustworthy- you tell me what I want to know.”

 

“I fail to understand.”

 

“You want information from me, I want information from you.”

 

“I already got most of what I wanted from you during our last interrogation,” Graves reminded. “Whilst you were under the Veritaserum.”

 

“Cut the crap. We both know that wasn’t what you _really_ wanted to know, you just didn’t want to risk your job by abusing your grant of the Veritaserum.”

 

Graves hesitated. It couldn’t hurt. Whilst MACUSA had run out of Veritaserum (Graves hated to admit that Grindelwald wasn’t the only suspect that it had been used on) Graves needed more information if he were to try Grindelwald for all of his crimes. He could ask Grindelwald the questions that he knew that Theseus wanted to know in the meantime.

 

“Alright, the-the first time. You mentioned that Newt had been pregnant, how _did_ he miscarry?”

 

Grindelwald looked as though the memory of it physically hurt him and replied, “He was four months along and things were going well, the baby was healthy and complacent in Newt’s womb… he-he had a nightmare one night, it was really bad. I guess he was reliving past events? They say that stress is bad for the baby, well, in this case fear killed her.”

 

“Her?”

 

“Yes, we were going to have a daughter.”

 

“That’s another thing I don’t get- how _did_ you know that the child was yours? There are no paternity spells, or at least none that I know of.”

 

Grindelwald looked as though he’d been slapped. Of course, Graves thought, when Grindelwald had said that ‘they’ had raped Newt, he hadn’t meant ‘we’ after all, he’d meant ‘I’. “You’ve already asked a question,” was the man’s response, “It’s my turn. Why did you sleep with Newt?”

 

“Because he wanted to.”

 

“That’s not an answer.”

 

“I don’t know, OK. He was there,” goodbye only friendship he’d ever truly cherished, “he wanted me, I didn’t stop him, it happened.”

 

“That’s what happened, not _why_.”

 

Graves felt slightly irritated with the man. He was fairly sure that he was answering the question, so why did Grindelwald keep saying that he wasn’t.

 

“I don’t know, it had been a while, I guess. He’s not _ugly_ , he wasn’t unwilling, honestly there were multiple reasons I slept with him, I guess.” Graves didn’t want to admit that in the earlier days of his imprisonment he’d also fantasied a little about taking Newt roughly against one of the many walls of Nurmengard.

 

Grindelwald sighed and looked down. He frowned. He didn’t believe that it was possible for the man to still harbor feelings for the younger Scamander brother, not after everything that had happened, but as he was quickly learning, Gellert Grindelwald was full of surprises.

 

“So… so, you did it out of lust then, nothing more?” Grindelwald sounded more defeated than angry.

 

“P-pretty much,” Graves admitted, knowing full fell that Theseus was going to fry him over a skillet when this was over.

 

“I see,” there was that anger Graves had found missing from the previous question.

 

“How long was Newt tortured, then?” Graves questioned, finally.

 

“A little over a year.” Grindelwald admitted. “We captured him in the August and he was found to be pregnant the next year in the December.”

 

Graves clutched his pen a little tightly. “Have you two engaged in coitus since Newt was fully sober and back in his normal state of mind?” the man questioned a little sharply.

 

“Many, _many_ times,” Graves said, a little sadistically.

 

Grindelwald likely would’ve used the death curse on him there and then if there wasn’t an anti-magic bracelet around his wrist.

 

“What curses did your men use on him?” he had no use of the knowledge, but he was willing to believe that it would at least bring some morbid form of closure to Theseus to know exactly what had happened to his little brother rather than be in the dark about it.

 

“I know they used the Transmogrifian Torture Curse,” Grindelwald admitted, scowling. “They also used some more basic ones, like the arrow shooting spell, the-the Entrail-Expelling Curse,” Grindelwald’s voice wavered more and more and Graves understood that he was about to get to the _really_ bad ones, “The- uh, the Cruciatus Curse, the Full Body Bind and the Imperius Curse,” Graves could easily guess why the last two were used on Newt. One to make his body a traitor to him and to break his spirits, and the other to make him pliable no doubt so that Grindelwald could have his merry way with him, and _gods_ did it make him sick to his stomach to hear them mentioned.

 

“Do you love Newt?”

 

That question took Newt by surprise. “What?”

 

“Do you love Newt? Is that why he left me for you?”

 

“He- no, we don’t love each other,” Graves said, frantically, “he was probably just worried about what would happen when you found out about the baby.”

 

“Then why didn’t he just escape on his own?” Grindelwald questioned. “Why did he stop and save you as well?”

 

Well- he, … why-why hadn’t he?


	35. Chapter 35

Graves knew he wasn’t going to get that question in easily. He’d already asked Tina to question Newt that week, he couldn’t simply ask her to swap. He’d have to wait until next week, when Theseus would be having his interrogations with Grindelwald.

 

For now, however, he knew that Theseus was going to want to ‘talk’ to him.

 

.

 

“You’re-you’re not mad?”

 

“Why would I be?” Theseus asked a little too quickly.

 

“Uh-um, no- er, I don’t know?” perhaps its because I just admitted that I had sex with your brother because it was convenient? Maybe because of what Grindelwald just admitted in front of you?

 

“Three more days,” Theseus said, pouring himself a whiskey.

 

It was Thursday. _Technically_ the interrogation was on Monday, but on Sunday Theseus was officially given permission to interrogate the man. Naturally the man had asked to interrogate him every day that week, prompting Graves to roll his eyes and mention that a suspect couldn’t be interrogated more than three times a week as per MACUSAn law, even if the man in question was Gellert Grindelwald.

 

Even though Theseus _technically_ had permission to interrogate Newt, he was choosing not to at the moment, as they didn’t want the young male’s memories to come crashing down at the sight of his brother.

 

.

 

When Newt had initially woken up from whatever he’d been in, his initial feelings had centered around confusion. Where was he? Who was he? Where was Gustav and Sergey? They were usually the ones who reprimanded him for passing out. And then he had frowned. Who were those two? Why were the walls so clean and why did he think they were supposed to be dirtier? Why was the lighting so good when there wasn’t even supposed to be lighting- but more importantly, why wasn’t there supposed to be lighting?

 

Why did he feel so lethargic and why did his body feel different? Where was Grindelwald and why hadn’t he thought of him as Gelly, the affectionate nickname that Newt had begun to call him two months into their relationship?

 

Why was everything so weird?

 

Now, when he woke up from his much briefer periods of sleep, he felt a little less disoriented. He woke up knowing where he was and, vaguely, what was going on. He managed to stand his ground during his interrogations with Ms. Goldstein and even managed to remember his actions, even though they felt weird and slightly out of body.

 

Why _had_ he aided in the torture of that muggle? Why _had_ he known a very dangerous man’s whereabouts and never turned him in? Why _did_ he feel such a strong emotional attachment to said dangerous man? And, more importantly, where was Pickett?

 

He remembered the little Bowtruckle that he had befriended. He liked Bowtruckles, liked all magical creatures, he remembered that. Whilst others thought that they were menaces, he thought they were utterly fascinating.

 

Maybe that memory was what triggered the next coma scare… no, scare wasn’t the right word, Graves thought. It wasn’t a scare when the event had actually taken place. He glanced down and Newt’s barely-alive body, hoping that the coma wasn’t going to bring about the death of the child ~~(or the death of Newt).~~


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: this chapter gets a bit graphic- you have been warned.

To say that Graves was a little worried about Theseus’s interrogation was an understatement. A _big_ understatement.

 

Graves had spent the night before it pacing around in his room in lieu of sleeping, and if not for the Fidelius charm on his apartment, he was sure that he would have had angry neighbors banging on his door.

 

Newt was still in his coma, which Graves knew was probably bad given how long it had been, but he had been told that it wouldn’t affect the child too much so that was good he supposed.

.

 

Graves watched the interrogation from the one way mirror, the way _Theseus_ **_should_** have done it. He watched the male take a large breath as he looked into the eye’s of his brother’s oppressor, but before Theseus could even open his mouth, Grindelwald spoke.

 

“I know that you were in the room with us, last time,” he said. “Honestly, that was a horrible ‘invisibility cloak,’ where did a man such as yourself acquire such a bad knockoff?”

 

(Graves blushed. He’d gotten that from evidence).

 

 

“Then you know that I heard what you said, but I'm not here for that today,” Theseus said, coolly, “I’m here to interrogate you on any information that you may have regarding the recent attacks on muggles in Europe.”

 

“Ah, muggles,” Grindelwald said nostalgically, “it’s been a long time since I’ve hear that word. So many people here call them ‘No-majs,’ they really are rather dull, these _americans_.” ( _Oh please,_ Graves thought, _you're just upset that we managed to capture you)_.

 

“Right,” Theseus said, unimpressed. “Well anyways, there’s been a string of anti-muggle crimes being committed and-”

 

“That’s not why you’re here.”

 

“Pardon?” Theseus seemed more offended than confused.

 

“The issues in Europe. They're not why you’re here- or at least, not why you're _really_ here,” Grindelwald smiled cattishly. (Graves was proud that Theseus was able to restrain himself from punching the man, but less than proud about how difficult it was to do the same, given he only stopped when Lucas pulled him back. Good cousin).

 

“Maybe so,” Theseus said, deadly calm. “But MACUSA and the Ministry were both gracious enough to allow me to conduct this interrogation, and I’m not intending on disappointing either of them, so, back to the beginning. What do you know about the anti-muggle crimes taking place in Europe? You can either co-operate, or I can request for a Legilemens to come and ‘loosen your tongue’.”

 

.

 

“I must say, I’m quite impressed,” Graves commented as he and Theseus walked out of MACUSA.

 

“You _really_ shouldn’t be,” Theseus admitted. “I was _this_ close to beating him up.”

 

“But you didn’t.” Graves said. “I let him divert me on many interrogations.”

 

“You’d been his prisoner,” Theseus pointed out.

 

“So had your brother.”

 

Theseus was quiet for a bit. “True, but it wasn’t exactly like he spent all of the past nine years being tortured or something, right?”

 

“I was never tortured,” Graves mentioned. “He- well, Newt only ever interrogated me.”

 

“What’s he like?” Theseus asked, suddenly.

 

“W-what?” Graves was a little startled by the question.

 

“Newt, I want to know what he’s like, what exactly happened in Nurmengard.”

 

“It’s a long story.”

 

“I have time.”

 

.

 

Theseus had written to his mother when he’d gotten the news, of course. Two simple words, not needing any explanation. _He’s alive_.

 

He wasn’t surprised to see Rex flying towards MACUSA that morning, given that there was no way that Rex could find the apartment.

 

He opened the letter:

 

_Theseus,_

_This is such great news! Just promise me you’ll bring him home safe, dear._

_-J. Scamander_

 

He glanced at Rex and felt bad. Poor guy had to fly across the ocean to deliver him a one-line message… oh well, time to do it all over again.

 

.

 

Newt had woken up again that Wednesday. Graves was unable to interview him that week due to him constantly falling in and out of consciousness. Gods above, Graves hoped that this was safe for the baby. Newt had been thin before the pregnancy, but now, four months in and he looked as though he were merely skin and bones, the baby bump barely noticeable at all.

 

He supposed that the end of Newt and Grindelwald’s relationship was probably the reason behind Newt’s disinterest in feeding himself- but for gods’ sakes, how irresponsible was that when you were pregnant with a little life that largely depended on you keeping yourself healthy whilst it needed you as a source of nutrition?

 

Newt was deemed ‘stable enough’ for an interrogation on Monday. Graves had known, of course, that Newt’s nurse would be in the room with them, but gods was it awkward.

 

“Mr. Scamander,” Graves nodded, he supposed it was OK to call him that. Aside from the fact that he was required to be formal during these meetings, it wasn’t as though Newt had betrayed his family by running away with Grindelwald- Newt hadn’t technically had much of a choice in that. But it didn’t change what had happened during the past few months.

 

“Graves,” Newt acknowledged coolly, not looking into Percival’s eyes.

 

“What do you know about the mess in Europe?”

 

“Not much. Some are followers, others are simply angry at mug- er, No-majs.”

 

“I see. And what about the recent outbreak of Reezustinhol?”

 

“Reezustinhol?”

 

“Yes, it’s a potion that is absolutely toxic to muggles. It is used to clear sinus infections.”

 

“Yes, I know what Reezustinhol is, but I was unaware of any outbreaks.” Of course you wouldn’t, Grindelwald had you locked up in that prison like Rapunzel.

 

“Nevermind. Can you account for yours and Mr. Grindelwald’s whereabouts on the night of the 3rd of October 1925, when a group of fanatics tore down the French Ministry of Magic and killed everyone they could find?”

 

“We were- we were both at Nurmengard,” Newt said, somewhat dizzily. “And we- and we,” he dry heaved once… twice… his nurse had sprinted out of the door, presumably to collect a bucket, but it was too late, out spewed the watery mess that was Newt’s stomach. Graves grimaced slightly, Newt looked so uncomfortable, and to be honest, the room smelled like crap.

 

She came back. “Oh my, oh my, oh dear,” she whisked out her wand and cast a vanishing charm on the vomit. “Dear, I do believe that that’s enough for today.”

 

Reluctantly, Newt nodded and followed her back to his cell.

 

.

 

“I’m worried, he’s unusually thin,” Graves pointed out to Theseus.

 

“I know. What’s the problem, though? I've seen the food they give him, is he not eating it?”

 

“No, the nurse mentioned that it was a struggle to get him to eat anything at all. I think he’s heartsick.”

 

“Over who? That clown he’s spent the past nine years being abused by?”

 

“Probably. I've read many reports of victims of abuse becoming emotionally attached to their abusers.”

 

.

 

Newt hated being awake most of all. Even more so than the horrible dreams he’d been having. He’d neglected to ask Graves about them, not wanting to appear helpless in front of the man again. Still, at least in the dreams things felt more stable.

 

Awake, he felt disoriented, and not in a way that his body for some reason said was normal. It was something else. Something that made him see red at times when he glanced at the walls, something that made spots dance in his vision, something that made him feel sweaty and like his skin was too heavy and creeping along his internal organs… something that made him feel rather uneasy, and it was all incredibly unsettling.

 

Sometimes he felt as though he were floating and would look up into the blank ceiling and see bright lights, storm clouds, and sometimes- sometimes he could hear screaming, the voice sounding disturbingly familiar and always managing to make his whole body shake. He was going crazy and he knew it.

 

He was going crazy, and he was pregnant, and a man who he had loved for seven years no longer made his heart leap out of his chest- and he doubted that the other loved him either- and it was all because of Percival _fucking_ Graves.

 

Maybe he was being a bit harsh because of his current mental state, but deep down he had to admit that on some level it was the truth. Had Graves never come into their lives he would still be together with Gelly and everyone would just be better off in general.

 

Right?

 

.

 

Wrong. Blinding pain that night, he saw white.

 

He was naked and standing in front of a mirror, unable to fall down for some reason- only writhe and crumple standing upright as though his bottom half wasn’t listening to his brain, but his skin was… different, unmarked by the bruises he knew he’d acquired in the past couple of years.

 

It felt like he was being hit with the Cruciatus curse, except instead of the pain fading it held. He felt some other curses in there as well. The Transmogrifian Torture Curse whilst he coughed up slugs. One that turned his bones into goop, one that made everything in him hurt unbearably, but not to the extent of the Cruciatus curse… at least not at first because it seemed to be getting more and more intense the longer he was under it.

 

Then there were other ones. Ones that left marks. Horrible, horrible marks on his body. Even bent over he could see the dark purple clouds that began to spread across his neck. Could feel the whip marks begin to form as he cried out, arching his back forwards at the burning sensation.

 

The whole time he heard voices. _Familiar_ voices, despite the fact that he couldn’t match them to any face he knew.

 

They said the weirdest things too.

 

_What do you know about Theseus Scamander?_

_What’s Theseus’s weak spot?_

_How can we_ hurt _him?_

_Tell us a secret._

_I hope this_ hurts _, bitch_.

 

And then the pain stopped for just the briefest of moments and he let out a sigh.

 

He looked up into the mirror again. He looked awful. His face was completely bruised and his nose looked broken- but not by magic, more like someone had kicked him in the face. His neck, chest and back were in pretty bad shape and it hurt every time he took a breath.

 

And then his legs began to shake and he could no longer hold himself up. he crumpled to the ground but could still see himself in the mirror. Could see bruises forming along his thighs, could see them making their way up to- his head hit the ground hard and he let out a scream as he felt tremendous pain from inside his rectum.

 

The voices were relentless.

 

_Oh look, the little whore likes it._

_Theseus Scamander_ killed _my brother, so I’m going to_ rape _his._

_Kneel, bitch._

 

The pain didn’t stop, he felt a wetness down there that he vaguely realized was blood. And then- and then the worst part came.

 

The one voice he knew better than any other.

 

 _I hope this hurts_.

 

And then he couldn’t see anything anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a breather to diffuse some tension and Graves ponders a few 'what if's.
> 
> Also a violation of Newt's right to privacy, I suppose.

Graves was pacing around his apartment. It had been six days since Newt had slipped into yet another coma. The doctors were worried, apparently his pulse was lower than normal.

 

Hesitantly, a nurse had approached Graves and mentioned that, although it was risky, they could try and switch the baby into a surrogate’s womb, but the technique was new and he knew that the survival rate of fetuses in the process was less than 40% and, ignoring the nagging voice in his head saying that the odds of the baby surviving in Newt was probably less than that, decided to let nature take its course and hope for the best (the decision having nothing to do with the scathing looks that Theseus was giving him).

 

Graves frowned when Theseus had apparated into his apartment with wood, nails and paint.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Hope’s low,” Theseus admitted. “But the baby is 4 months along- nearly five. And when he or she or they are born, I want them to have a home to come home to.”

 

Graves had wondered how on earth he’d forgotten about that little fact. He’d been so concerned about the baby’s odds of survival (which the doctor had rated pretty high due to the length of time Newt had been able to carry it- they should really find out the gender… then again, MACUSA had a strict law about the mother of the child choosing whether or not to know the gender) that he’d forgotten that in a few months there was a high probability that he’d be bringing the child home.

 

Theseus waved his hand and the cot assembled itself. He turned to Graves, “What colour should the room be?”

 

“Blue.”

 

“It’s a boy then?”

 

“No- I don’t know, why would that matter though, what are we, No-majs?”

 

Theseus contemplated the rhetorical question for a bit before shrugging. “Why blue?”

 

“Blue’s an intellectual colour.”

 

“It’s also a depressing colour.”

 

“The baby will be easier to put to sleep then,” Graves argued, stubbornly. His nursery had been blue. So had every member of the Graves family’s ~~(then again there was only 1 nursery room in their home).~~

 

“Fine, we’ll paint it blue then.”

 

.

 

By the end of the week they’d managed to create _another_ room (thank the gods this place was Fideliused or he’d have Picquery flying at him for all the unregistered charms in the apartment), paint it blue, and get a crib into it.

 

All of this had helped to de-stress him, but at the end of the week he had to face the fact that it had been nearly two weeks and Newt was showing no signs of improvement.

 

He was worried. MACUSA only gave criminals a month in the wing at a time, if it took any longer then Newt would be taken off of life support and on the way to a medical facility he could crash and- no. He had to hope for the best. Theseus had reached out to Albus Dumbledore, but the bloody wand permit was taking forever to process.

 

He’d seen his parents. They’d never been to his apartment- being too old to apparate that far without the risk of splinching, and him not having a floo network set up in his apartment.

 

They’d hugged him and talked… but he hadn’t brought up Newt, or the baby. None of his family knew. _None_. He didn’t know how he’d tell them.

 

 _Hey guys, while I was captured I had sex with this guy- yes I_ did _know that he was in a relationship!- and I knocked him up! Meet Paul/Gina/Paul_ and _Gina!_

 

He grimaced. Paul? _Gina?_ He had to come up with better names for the kid(s). Maybe he ought to brainstorm with Theseus?

 

.

 

Theseus laughed despite the depressed feeling he’d been having for days. “Paul? _Gina?_ What the hell!”

 

Graves blushed. “Well hey, you haven’t pitched anything.”

 

“That’s because I-I _know_ what Newt would want to name him or her,” Theseus said shakily.

 

“What?”

 

“Look,” Theseus pulled out a worn and battered pocket book from his coat. It was one that was familiar to Graves, one that he despised for everything that it stood for. Newt’s journal before he was taken.

 

“ _March 7 1917,”_ Theseus read out.

 

“ _I think Sergey might be coming on to me, which is kind of weird, because I know that I can’t carry. I guess I could really only ever settle down with a girl or another carrier which kind of sucks because Sergey is- and I’ll never say this to him because he has a big enough ego already- quite handsome. I wish I could carry, I can sort of see myself settling down with the prat, we’d have two kids, a boy and a girl. We’d call the girl Judith Svetlana (his mom’s name) Volga (it’s a seriously beautiful river and I’m pretty sure it’s the longest one in Europe too which is cool) Brusilov (assuming I take his name, of course) and we’d call the boy Thomas (after a friend of mine who died in this war) Constantine (his father’s name, because my mom’s name comes before his with our daughter’s so its only fair) Arthur (Paul is my dad’s first name but I’d never name my children that, it’s too weird) Brusilov. I-”_

Theseus stopped. “So yeah, Newt already kind of has names picked out.”

 

Graves blinked they were beautiful names, or maybe he was just thinking that because his own names had been terrible. “We’ll have to swap out Sergey’s parents’ names,” he felt something weird in him when he said the man’s name

 

Theseus nodded. “Yeah. Sergey’s dead by the way,” Graves frowned.

 

“What?” why was Theseus telling him this?

 

“He died in the war, no one’s really sure how though. They were on their way back to England with the dragons and they’d set up camp for a night, they found his head blown off in a creek the next morning.”

 

“That’s sad.”

 

“Yeah, it really is.”

 

“So then, Judith Evelyn Volga Graves and Thomas Martin Arthur Graves?” Theseus asked after a while.

 

“Yes,” Graves nodded.

 

“Of course Judith Evelyn Volga _Scamander_ and Thomas Martin Arthur _Scamander_ have better rings to them.”

 

“They’re getting my name.”

 

“Why?”

 

“You read what Newt wrote,” Graves fished for an excuse, “He was willing to give up his last name in the diary entry and I’m pretty sure he would do the same in real life.”

 

He froze as a thought entered his mind. Newt Grindelwald had almost happened. Newt was going to have Grindelwald’s baby at a time, what if little Judith Gertrude Volga Grindelwald or Thomas Martin Rubeus Grindelwald (he was 2% sure that that was the man’s father’s name) had been born. Would any of this have happened? Grindelwald would have let Newt keep his memories had the child been born. He may have even married him sooner, had more children. Graves wouldn’t have stood a chance. Somehow the baby’s death seemed slightly less tragic. It was the reason he was standing here today, it was the reason Newt was remembering and it was the reason he was going to have a child and in a sick way he was sort of almost grateful for it.

 

Because if it hadn’t happened… Grindelwald would have taken over the world.


	38. Chapter 38

“M-M-Mr Graves,” Graves spun on his heel to face the boy that had called his name. He wasn’t in a good mood at all, there were two days left for Newt to wake up before MACUSA would want to move him.

 

“What is it?” he was two steps away from the start of MACUSA’s anti-apparition zone.

 

“Uh-I, um, I,” the boy stuttered.

 

“Look, I really don’t have all day,” it’s true, he’d be running late if he didn’t get a move on soon.

 

“About-about the girl, i- uh-”

 

“Girl? What girl?” Graves frowned before it all suddenly made sense. Newt had mentioned someone, some boy with a funny name, was helping Grindelgraves look for an Obscurial in New York. “Listen son, I’ll meet with you after work. If it’s possible I’d like to see you at 6:30,” he pointed at the shop where he usually got his coffee, “over there. Are you available?”

 

“Uh,” Credence glanced around. “Um, sure.”

 

“Excellent, see you then.”

.

 

Nope. Nada. Zilch. There was nothing that he could do to stop them from moving Newt in two days, Picquery had made that evident.

 

He walked over to the coffee shop, half an hour early as work at MACUSA finished at 6:00.

 

He went over his game plan whilst waiting for the boy.

 

He needed to know what the boy knew about the Obscurial before another person died (because Tina had casually mentioned that they had some unknown force running amuck in New York, granted she’d thought it was Grindelwald but he knew better). He wondered what Grindelwald saw in the boy. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was a wizard as he wasn’t getting a magical vibe from him, but there was a possibility he was from a wizarding family. Maybe he wasn’t very strong, maybe he was a squib, who knew, but he was certain that the boy wasn’t a No-Maj.

 

He’d briefly mentioned to Theseus that he’d be back at the apartment late, but decided against telling his best-friend the specific details of who he was meeting, where and why. This prompted Theseus to become slightly offended and childishly neglect to acknowledge his presence for the entirety of the day. Goodness, if he hadn’t known any better he’d have assumed he’d slept with Theseus and not Newt.

 

Urgh. Oh gods no. No no no, that was so- _gah_. It was the equivalent of sleeping with Theodore. Never ever _ever_ gonna happen!

 

The boy could not have gotten there fast enough.

 

“What’s your name?” Graves inquired.

 

“Um, C-Credence?” the boy sounded confused.

 

Graves sighed. “Look, uh, Credence. I think it’s important to clear a few things up. First things first, I’m not the Graves who you know, a man was walking around with my face and I’ve never actually met you.”

 

“W-what?”

 

Graves patiently explained to the young, shy man the circumstances under which he’d met Grindelgraves.

 

“So-so you really don’t know me, huh?”

 

“I’m sorry, Credence. Why don’t you tell me everything that you told him?”

 

“Well, we didn’t really t-t-talk much. U-uh, he-he wanted me t-t-to find s-someone. Someone he s-s-said was powerful? He s-s-said that they were c-close to me. That, uh, that if I d-didn’t find them they would, uh, they would die?”

 

The Obscurial. Credence was close to the Obscurial? OK, he glanced up and down at the pale, skinny, underfed young man, sure, that made sense. Then again, there was something about him… perhaps Graves was wrong, perhaps Credence was in fact a wizard. He didn’t seem to be out of place in this coffee shop with him, regardless of the fact that he also didn’t seem to be very powerful if he was one.

 

Still, even a little magic would have been enough to attract an Obscurial to him, the parasite in the child desperately seeking those around it who possessed magic for it to feed on… and besides, he glanced at the young man, despite how weak he looked, he had no doubt that the child would be drawn to the boy’s no-doubt loving nature.

 

“Look, Credence, I have no idea what Grindelwald promised you-”

 

“Magic.”

 

Graves blinked. What? “What?”

 

“He-he promised to show me how to use magic.”

 

OK, so definitely just a weak wizard, probably a No-maj born.

 

“Look, Credence. I need your help finding this child before he or she dies. After that- I know Ilvermorny has some night classes you could probably take.”

 

There was no way the boy was older than 24, so he’d be roughly the age of most other wizards doing their night classes and younger than most of the teachers so it wouldn’t be too awkward for him.

 

“Th-thanks, sir. I, uh, I need to go before Ma realizes I’m missing.”

 

“Of course, Credence.”

 

.

 

Still in the coma. Not getting better. They were moving him.

 

“Why do you care so much anyways?”

 

“It’s Theseus Scamander’s little brother, he was kidnapped by a madman years ago. Sorry for having a heart.” And a baby in his womb.

 

“Well if all this is happening because he’s remembering his past, I honestly think he’ll be lucky to have a crash on the way to hospital.”

 

He looked at her in outrage. “What. The doctor said that the baby’s far enough along that it barely even needs Mr. Scamander to host it anymore.”

 

He had, but Graves also knew that the youngest fetus to ever survive without its mother thanks to magic was 6 months along, and his child was barely pushing 5.

 

.

 

Thankfully they’d managed to move Newt to a nearby hospital, St Joe’s, without any issues. And thankfully it wasn’t the hospital that Eva worked at because he’d be in a load of shit if it were.

 

Newt looked so peaceful in his coma, but it was still rather strange seeing the young, normally active man laying down, his eyes open but completely unresponsive, dressed in a white hospital gown, completely vulnerable.

 

And for the first time since that interview with Grindelwald, Graves truly allowed himself to place himself in Newt Scamander’s shoes.

 

He was- what? 19? 20? when he was kidnapped. He’d served in the army for… 2 years maybe? The dragon project was shutting down and they were heading home. He was going to be travelling back with someone who he was unknowingly in love with and someone who- someone who he could have had a future with?

 

Graves glanced at Newt and felt his heart drop. And then he was kidnapped for something he had no part in. He was tortured repeatedly and-and his skin and bones still remain blemished despite the fact that it had been 9 years.

 

And then, as a punishment for being loyal to his brother and those trying to defend No-Majs and people in general, he was-he was raped… and fell pregnant… and-and lost the baby…

 

Graves felt tears well in his eyes. Grindelwald had used sex as a way to try and get what he wanted from Newt, he’d basically done the same thing. He was a monster- worse, he was practically Gellert _fucking_ Grindelwald.

 

No wonder no one had noticed that he was missing. He supposed he really hadn’t been.


	39. Chapter 39

And they were officially(ish) in the fifth month!

 

Graves was just about ready to cry out in relief. Thankfully none of his siblings had gone to the hospital recently (which, knowing Theodore, was a downright miracle).

 

Speaking of his older brother, he needed to find a _really_ good excuse to get out of going to the man’s big duel next month. Yes, it was important. Yes, it _was_ against his ‘arch nemesis’ (he was pretty sure the older man had over 50 of them anyways). And _yes_ it was something that the rest of the family were all going to watch, but quite frankly for some odd reason he wanted to be by Newt’s side. The man was, after all, pregnant with his child and in a rather vulnerable state. In addition, the hospital may have had some of the best staff in the state [though he was pretty sure that SHONY was better, but he doubted it would be easy to get Newt there given that it was over a hundred miles away) but they also had a bit of a reputation and Graves and Theseus had been taking turns monitoring Newt.

 

Hmmm… he was going out with Theseus? No, his family were already cracking jokes about how the two should just get hitched already… Picquery wanted him to work late? That would make sense! ~~Not.~~ Perhaps before the match he could hex himself? No, but then his whole family would be worried about him during Theodore’s big moment… Perhaps he could convince somebody to take a polyjuice potion for him? He vaguely remembered that Luke and Tina were going, but what about the younger Goldstein sister? To his knowledge she was single and had nothing going on that night.

 

.

 

“Sure,” she smiled. “Happy to help,” _I know you’re both internally conflicted but I really think you two would be perfect for each other. He seems as though he needs a giver, and you, Percival Graves, are one hell of a giver._

 

“Thank you so much,” _why is she staring at me like that?_

.

 

“How’s Newt holding up?” Theseus inquired, coming in to take his shift.

 

“He’s fine,” Graves said, reluctantly picking up his coat and- nodding goodbye to Theseus- walking towards the exit.

 

.

 

The last owl he’d gotten from Theodore had almost made him laugh.

 

_Gosh, Percy. You’re so busy nowadays it’s like you have a secret family or something! Tell me, when do we meet your lovely bride?- oh, wait, I know who it is, it’s Theseus, isn’t it? I fucking knew it! Ed owes me 50 dragots!_

He’d almost written back a snarky reply, _Wrong Scamander_ , before stopping himself.

 

What the hell? What the actual fucking hell? That was messed up and completely wrong! Newt was- gods no, Newt was fucking _nothing_! Sure, he was carrying Graves’s child, but that was where it ended. ~~Although, a nagging voice in Percival’s head interjected, perhaps Newt wasn’t entirely to blame for his time in Nurmengard.~~

 

You know what the problem was? It was that he hadn’t had enough time to himself recently. He hadn’t gone out since before he was captured. There was a little wizarding pub only a few blocks away from his apartment that he could easily apparate to.

 

Yes. He, Percival Graves, was going out tonight.

 

.

 

Her name was Sophie. They went to her place. It was amazing but… it felt weird for some reason. He didn’t usually do this, but he was gone before she woke up.

 

.

 

He’d sent Theseus with them.

 

“Why?”

 

“They’ll wonder where you are.”

 

“Can’t we just say I’m, I don’t know, on a date or something?”

 

We could, but then they’d see through our plan because even though they joke about it we _are_ always together. Then again, maybe that would get them to stop calling us a ‘happily married couple.’

 

“No, they’ll realize Queenie isn’t really me.”

 

“I know, but it’ll be weird sitting next to her and trying to pretend that she’s you.”

 

“Because she’s a girl?”

 

“Because I’ll know she’s not actually you.”

 

“Theseus, please. If they realize it’s not me they’ll realize something’s up, and then they’ll find out. Can you imagine how weird that conversation would be?”

 

Hey mom, hey dad, I’d like you to meet ~~my~~ this pregnant guy. He was one of my captors in Nurmengard, his name is Newt. Yes, he is Grindelwald’s consort, or at least he was, just like you read in the paper! So glad we had this talk. Oh, by the way, the baby’s mine.

 

He wondered if St. Joe’s had the same regulations as MACUSA about the mother having to consent to finding out the sex.

 

.

 

As it turned out, they did not. Instead _both_ parents had to agree to it. Fuck.

 

Looks like the only way he’d know the gender of the baby would be if Newt ~~ever~~ woke up, or when the child was born.

 

.

 

Fun fact, Newt had been in his coma for nearly a month now and Graves was really starting to freak out. And it didn’t help that he was roommates with Theseus, aka Mr. Panic.

 

 _What if he never wakes up?_ It was a possibility.

_What if he dies- you know that sometimes happens!_ Yes, he was well aware of that.

_What if someone at Joe’s does something to him?_ He knew that that was a possibility as well, but some people from MACUSA had volunteered to watch him at times- OK, three people, Queenie, Tina and Lucas (mostly Queenie).

 

 _What if Grindelwald’s followers go after him?_ Time would tell, and even after everything that happened he doubted that Grindelwald would want to harm Newt.

 

No, their relationship may have been fucked up at best but he knew that the man had been deeply in love with Newt, much as he hated to admit it.

 

~~But why did he hate to admit it?~~

 

And besides, they had Grindelwald under lock and key in MACUSA, August 11 was his trial date. For some reason though, Graves felt that Grindelwald wouldn’t be present for it. That there was actually a possibility that the man might escape before it, which prompted him to double the guard detail around the man’s cell.

 

No, it was unlikely that even now Grindelwald would want to harm Newt, but he wasn’t quite ruling off kidnap yet. ~~Wasn’t that how it all started?~~

 

.

 

Her name was Tina- but not like ‘Porpentina,’ just _Tina_.

 

She was a redhead with a beautiful smile. For some reason though, she acted like she knew him.

 

“Well, I don’t blame you, you were pretty drunk last time. You were here with this really shady guy.”

 

“When?”

 

“About five months ago.”

 

“Oh.” That was weird. For some reason he’d assumed that Grindelwald would know better than to wear his face when going out.

 

“Rubeus, right?”

 

“Uh, no actually. My name’s Percival, Percival Graves.”

 

“Oh- wait, you don’t mean like the Percival Graves who was imprisoned by Grindelwald, do you?” she began putting two and two together in her head. “Oh- _oh_ , oh fuck! I slept with that lunatic!? I could have died!”

 

“Yeah, sorry about that, hey, you didn’t manage to catch the name of the guy he was with, did you?”

 

“Uh, yeah, sort of. Guy had a funny name… think it started with a G or something… maybe a D…”

 

“You said it was funny… remind you of anything?”

 

“Yeah- yeah, a Dolphi- Donavin! His name was Donavin! They were talking to each other when I walked up to them!”

 

OK, that lessened the chance of Grindelwald using a fake name to refer to his accomplice.

 

“Thanks a ton!” he smiled at her charmingly.

 

“You know…” she hummed. “I slept with him, but I never really got to experience firsthand how the owner of the body was in bed,” she said flirtatiously.

 

“Is that so…”

 

.

 

Definitely felt less wrong than with her. _Definitely_. They fell asleep and he didn’t even feel the need to leave!

 

Or at least, that was until the next morning when he woke up, stretched out, and turned to face her.

 

“Hmmm, g’morning,” she greeted sleepily.

 

“Good morning, Newt.”

 

“What?” he felt his heart sink. What the hell?

 

“I said good morning, Tina.”

 

“You want some breakfast?”

 

No, because he honestly felt like he was going to be sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness gracious Graves, stop fighting it!


	40. Chapter 40

Five and a half months. Newt was five and a half months along and had been in his coma for over a month now.

 

Guess who wanted to visit? Judith Scamander… ‘yay.’

 

Honestly, it had been a while since he’d seen the woman. Newt had her eyes and he briefly wondered if their child would too. They were a magnificent pair of eyes.

 

Also, Grindelwald’s trial date had been postponed due to more information of crimes he’d committed. It was now on the 23rd of August. That was a little over 4 months from then.

 

He glanced at Newt. They’d closed his eyes, honestly he didn’t know whether it was more comforting or more unsettling. He softly placed his hand on Newt’s belly. It would be so easy to cast the spell, to find out the gender…

 

He jumped. What was that? Was that? It felt as though the baby had moved inside Newt.

 

.

 

Newt was on a drip, but he’d woken up. _Finally_.

 

They were checking his vitals when Graves got there. Theseus had discouraged Judith from coming and instead promised his mother that he’d bring Newt home soon, _safe_.

 

Theseus, who could no longer visit his brother.

 

“Newton,” he nodded.

 

“Where am I?” the young man frowned.

 

“You’re at St. Joe’s. I trust that you’re feeling better?”

 

“Much. Where’s my brother?”

 

“Wha- what?” Graves blinked, confused. _Shit_.

 

“Graves,” Newt clutched his throbbing head. “I-I know he’s here. I heard him.”

 

How the hell was that possible. “Newt, you need to rest.” And we can’t use many potions on you because they could be harmful for the baby. “Please- I’ll ask him to come next time.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“For what?”

 

“You know.” He did.

 

“It’s OK.” Was it? Was it really?

 

“Newt?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I’m sorry too.”

 

.

 

The whole encounter with Newt had left him a little shaken.

 

Newt was sorry. The man he’d believed at a point to be incapable of human feelings had just apologized to him. Worse, he’d apologized _back_.

 

This was _too_ fucked up, and after Tina he was too scared to solve his problems with sex. What the hell was happening to him?

 

He combed through his contacts list for a legilimens. He needed to get behind these feelings if he hoped to stop them. And he _needed_ to stop them.

 

Theseus apparated into the apartment. “Hey, how was he?”

 

“He’s fine. He remembers you. He wants to see you.”

 

“Didn’t you say he remembered me already?”

 

“Yeah, he did. But now he knows you’re here.”

 

“And?”

 

“What do you mean ‘and’?”

 

“Look. Every time Newt thinks about his past he remembers a little more. If he sees me there’s no telling what could happen.”

 

Theseus had a point. Graves sighed. “Alright. Alright.”

 

“Did you get the confirmation?”

 

Shit, he’d forgotten.

 

“Urgh, and I can’t go back there either! I promised that the next time I went to see him I’d bring you.”

 

“You promised to see him?” Crap.

 

“Uh, yeah.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Oh, you know. I thought you'd be curious about him and since seeing you might trigger some memories…” lie no.1

 

“OK.” Theseus said in an odd way that made Graves uncomfortable.

 

.

 

The Legilimens was a guy. His name was Dr. Enrico (he worked with No-Majs as well).

 

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

 

“Well, I seem to be having some inappropriate thoughts about someone.”

 

“May I take a look?”

 

“Of course.”

 

The man stared directly at him. He’d never had a legilimens look into his mind before, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel anything.

 

“Alright, so I see that this man has hurt you? But I also see that you feel some kind of guilt here because you believe that you’ve hurt him... do you want to talk about it?”

 

“Uh, sure.”

 

“Why do you think you hurt him?”

 

“When he was at a weak and vulnerable moment, I didn’t really resist that much when he wanted sex, despite the fact that he had a loving relationship with his partner.”

 

“Who- oh, _oh_ , Grindelwald? Really?”

 

“Yes,” Graves chuckled.

 

“I sense that you don’t really believe that Grindelwald and the man- Newt, were in a loving relationship.”

 

He knew the man already knew everything but he still played along.

 

“Well, yeah, they didn’t exactly meet under conventional terms… or consensual ones for that matter.”

 

“I understand that you feel pity towards him because you see him as a victim of extreme torture and- oh, that’s bad.”

 

“Well, yeah,” Graves confessed. “He’s been through a lot.”

 

“And it’s confusing you because you still resent him for what you were put through in Nurmengard.”

 

“Yes, I do.”

 

“I think it’s about time that you ask yourself a question, Mr. Graves. Is the fact that the young man is carrying your child the real reason that you’re worried about what’s happening to him? And where do you feel you are with him? Friends or enemies?”

 

Graves had no answer to either question.

 

“Think about that for a bit, I’ll see you next week.”

 

.

 

“Where is he?” Newt asked, sitting up. He’d been shifted back to the MACUSA medical wing to make sure that he didn’t try to run away or something.

 

He had a newspaper on his lap and was wearing a white hospital gown.

 

“He couldn’t come, he had Auror business to attend to. I’m sorry, Newt.”

 

“It’s alright, I figured that you wouldn’t want me to see him. You’re probably worried about my memories coming back.”

 

Graves stared at him, completely gobsmacked.

 

“I-You- how did you know?”

 

“I’ve been able to remember things that used to literally hurt me to think about,” Newt cracked a shallow smile. “I also assume that you want to know the gender of the baby. I heard you ask about the procedure at the other hospital.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“It was nice seeing Theseus,” Newt said, nostalgically. “He’s grown so much.”

 

Well, yeah. He figured that Theseus had grown during ni- no, wait, they hadn’t seen each other since the war started, so technically 13 years given that it was now 1927. Newt would have been 17 and Theseus would have been, what, 21 or 22?

 

“It’s been a while, I suppose.”

 

“It’s going to be a girl.”

 

Well that was- that was news.

 

Fuck, Theseus was right, why did they paint the nursery blue!? It should’ve been pink or yellow, something uplifting and happy and- gods above why was he so scared about having a daughter!? ~~Maybe he was scared he wouldn’t be a good enough parent for one?~~

 

“That’s-that’s nice.”

 

“Really? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

 

It wasn’t really out of character for Newt to be a little concerned about him, he supposed. Even in Nurmengard he’d get worried at times- after all, wasn’t that why they talked in the first place? He was in cuffs and Newt was worried about him getting stiff?

 

It just seemed kind of funny for Newt to be the concerned one when the man was in an ICU ward at MACUSA having recently woken up from a coma.

 

He was looking into convincing Picquery to allow Newt to remain in custody at his house rather than MACUSA from now on. Yes, at MACUSA Newt had 24/7 medical care, but he was starting to think that the setting may be a little unfit for the man given that his comas all seemed to start in his cell- which given what happened to him under Grindelwald’s care made perfect sense, he supposed.

 

Of course Theseus would have to move out, and he'd have to place an anti-magic bracelet on Newt to ensure the young male couldn’t apparate away. Still, Graves supposed it was better than leaving the person carrying his child here.

 

.

 

“You sure it’s OK?”

 

“Positive, although I must confess, I’m a little worried about leaving my baby brother all alone in an apartment with you,” Theseus winked.

 

Graves barked out a dry, sarcastic laugh. “Haha, very funny, like we haven’t already done everything you’d be worried about.”

 

“You know, I feel like I’m supposed to be angrier with you- like threaten to sleep with one of your siblings or something.”

 

“The only one who isn’t married is Theodore, do you _really_ want to sleep with him?”

 

“Fair point, speaking of which, I know this place is under the Fidelius Charm, but aren’t you worried that one of your siblings might apparate here and find out about Newt?”

 

“I've already taken care of that, apparition in and around here is banned, if they wanted to find this place they’d have to walk for four blocks and they’ve never seen this place from the outside before so we’re good.”

 

“When are you going to tell them?”

 

“Oh, you know.” Graves’s hand flew to rub the back of his neck, “Maybe two or three…”

 

“Two or three what?”

 

“Two or three months after she’s born, I don’t know.”

 

“Wait- it’s a girl,” Theseus froze.

 

Oh, that’s right, he’d forgotten to tell him.

 

“Well, uh, yeah. Newt asked them.”

 

“Crap.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“You know, mom always wanted a girl. She was going to name Newt ‘Nathalie.’”

 

“Oh,” he wondered- had Newt been born a girl, if that really would have suited him- er, her. Probably. “You know, MACUSA’s letting him go, right.”

 

“What?” that seemed to surprise Theseus. Why though?

 

“Well, yeah. I spoke to the DA this morning, she says we can’t file charges against him given that he wasn’t in a ‘sound state of mind.’ She’s going to rule the whole thing off as coercion and add it to Grindelwald’s list of crimes.”

 

“Oh,” Theseus blinked. “That’s-that’s great, wow. “

 

“Yeah, it is.” Sure he wasn’t going to get that revenge that he’d wanted for a really long time, but that was OK he guessed? It still hurt him a little to look at Newt after everything that had happened, but his weekly visits to the Legilimens were helping him realize that maybe- just _maybe_ he’d be able to be in the same room as the man and not experience vertigo. Not have to look at the man and remember his tormentor of, what? Four- five months? Something like that.

 

Honestly, he hoped that he’d be OK sharing an apartment with Newt for the next three and a half months.

 

 

 

 


	41. Chapter 41

“Is all of this really necessary?”

 

“The bracelet?” Graves questioned, upon entering the apartment alongside Newt. Sidelong apparation was risky enough as it was, so he outright refused to do it while one party was pregnant. “Of course.”

 

“No, I mean moving me from MACUSA.”

 

“You seemed to be reacting negatively to the space,” Graves pointed out. “It’s likely due to- uh, yeah, well. Anyways, I’m sure a little more open space would do you better.”

 

“And you aren’t worried I’ll try and take off the bracelet?”

 

“You need one of two things to get it open, magic or a Bowtruckle,” Graves said.

 

It was true, Newt had neither of those.

 

“Here,” Graves placed something in Newt’s hand.

 

Newt opened it up and watched as Pickett stretched up and climbed up his shirt to sit on his shoulder.

 

Newt gaped at the Bowtruckle. “What the hell Graves?”

 

“Look- I know things have been bad between us, and I know that, uh, yeah, you know. But MACUSA acquitted you after a psychologist assessed memories of mine from a pensieve and concluded that you weren’t in the right state of mind and were just as much of a victim. Therefore-”

 

“I wasn’t.”

 

“What?” the interruption had taken Graves by surprise.

 

“I wasn’t a victim, I don’t think you understand,” Newt said. “I did- I do still love him.”

 

“How?”

 

“It’s complicated.” Newt frowned at him.

 

“He tortured you.”

 

“I know.”

 

Graves sighed. “Alright then.” Clearly there was nothing that Graves could do to change Newt’s mind at the moment. Newt just had to remember a bit more, he figured it’d be safe to ask where Newt’s memories were after their daughter was born.

 

Judith Evelyn Volga Graves. It was a pretty name. He had no idea how to bring it up to Newt without revealing that Theseus had read Newt’s diary. He could see how that conversation would go.

 

‘They found my diary? Cool, I wanna see it!’

 

‘No.’

 

‘Yes.’

 

‘No.’

 

‘Yes.’

 

Newt would probably eventually get ahold of it after that and boom- another coma!

 

“This is your room,” Graves led Newt to the room that his siblings usually slept in when they visited.

 

“Thank you,” Newt said, walking into the room. It wasn’t huge, but it was at least double the size of Newt’s cell and had a rather comfortable bed in it.

 

“My pleasure.”

 

.

 

Graves cast a quick silencing charm on his door. That would stop Newt from hearing should he have any nightmares.

 

Newt was a free man and frankly it was none of his business what the man did- regardless of the fact that he still wanted to see the man pay in some way. He’d considered taking the child and raising her alone, completely hiding her from Newt but assumed that that was too much. He had to remember that even though Newt did the things he’d done there was a fucking licensed legilimens who said he was some type of mental control from Grindelwald. She’d apparently seen it on other wizards who’d been captured and tortured~ No-majs too.

 

Their captors would abuse them enough, maybe show them a bit of care once in a while and then suddenly they were willing to defend said captor regardless of what happened. He doubted that he’d gone through the same phenomenon given that he had absolutely no desire to defend Grindelwald or Newt despite understanding where the younger male was coming from.

 

Newt’s had, of course, been made worse given his lack of memories and the fact that he’d recently gone through a lot of bad stuff and Grindelwald had been there to comfort him and – despite the fact that it made Graves cringe- fall in love with him.

 

But either way, he doubted that Newt would leave now. Not when those closest to Grindelwald might want to avenge their master, after all how was Newt going to single-handedly defend against them whilst protecting his baby?

 

It pretty much guaranteed that Newt would stay put rather than grabbing a knife or something and breaking out of the apartment. After all, he doubted the man wanted to put his child in jeopardy.

 

He wondered what the baby would look like? Newt’s hair and his eyes? His hair and Newt’s eyes? Just like Newt or just like him? ~~Theseus’s hair and Theodore’s face.~~

 

That last thought was vaguely horrific… actually, on second thought, he knew that both men were bi- no, no. Gods no, that would never work. Besides, he’d be setting his best-friend up with the biggest idiot in the world and setting his brother up with, well, the second biggest idiot in the world.

 

He hoped beyond hope that the baby looked nothing like any of them- maybe Margie though ~~, maybe Newt? He was rather pretty looked delicate enough for a girl to look like him and not be butt ugly.~~

 

And just like that he fell asleep, thinking about the possible features of his soon to be born daughter.

 

.

 

Grindelwald had been growing less and less cooperative each day that passed and honestly Graves kind of understood him. He’d been promised something in exchange for information and had been betrayed, seemingly the one person on the earth that the man actually loved had rejected him, and on top of that he was still being held within MACUSA, the date of his trial continuously moving back. Honestly, at this point Graves wouldn’t be surprised if it were held in December or something.

 

Gellert kept insisting to see Newt, but Graves was reluctant to bring the man to MACUSA- at least for a couple of months that was.

 

Newt had been living with him for about a month now. The man was quiet and shy, obviously increasingly embarrassed as more and more became easier to remember.

 

He’d considered talking to Newt about the younger man’s memories but decided against it. Even when compared with some of the darker things they’d talked about in Nurmengard the issue seemed a tad fragile, and besides, the baby was due in two months, the talk could wait assuming that Newt was willing to have it.

 

 

Sweet little Judith Evelyn Volga Graves, soon to be the victim of her dad’s immense spoiling. Poor baby.

 

.

 

It had been a while since he’d last gotten to meet up with Theseus outside of work. They’d decided to grab a cup of coffee

 

“The Ministry is calling me back for a bit to work on a case involving a werewolf.”

 

“Oh. When will you be back?”

 

“Soon. Hopefully.”

 

“Hopefully.”

 

.

 

“What’s the news on Theseus?” it was like the only thing they ever talked about, other than the sky and some other weird shit that Newt hadn’t seen in a while.

 

“He’s travelled to London to help out with some Auror work.”

 

“Oh. Alright.”

 

Nothing. At least in Nurmengard they sometimes butted heads, this was so bland and boring and dull and gods Graves was sick of it already, he had no idea how on earth he would possibly be able to survive the next couple months.

 

Sex was pretty much off the table despite neither of them having formally ended their ‘relationship’ if one could have called it that.

 

Newt’s baby bump seemed more pronounced and that made Graves feel a little more relieved given that he'd been rather certain that the child was being malnourished by all that had been ailing Newt in the past couple of months.

 

It truly was surprising given how little Newt ate despite an abundance of food in the apartment. Graves suspected Newt wasn’t being entirely honest with how hungry he was but decided not to bring it up. He couldn’t force Newt to be comfortable around him, he had to make him feel comfortable, but to do that he had to be comfortable with the younger male himself, which he was quite far from thank you very much.

 

Theseus couldn’t return from Britain soon enough.


	42. Chapter 42

Graves had pretty much moved into his office at MACUSA. He knew it wasn’t fair on Newt- make the younger male move in with him and then all but abandon him, but he didn’t know what else to do.

 

His home didn’t even really feel like _his_ home. And he still returned home every night, but that was it- he only came back at like 11 or something.

 

“Are you avoiding me?” Newt had asked him one day when Graves had unexpectedly found Newt awake and sitting in the living room.

 

“No, I’m just busy.”

 

“OK.”

 

He and Theseus had exchanged words every now and then.

 

_How’s Newt?_

**_Good._ **

 

Theseus’s mission wasn’t going very well though. The Werewolf had seemingly murdered a few people and turned some others- chiefly the murder victims’ children. Theseus was currently trying to look for relationships between the victims believing that the turning of their children indicated that these were revenge killings.

 

He watched the brown owl fly off. It wasn’t common in the States for wizards to own owls, the creatures being seen as rather outdated, he himself didn’t keep one as he believed that it put him in potential danger. After all, the Director of Magical Security had _many_ enemies who were desperate to harm him.

 

.

 

Newt seemed a lot more comfortable! He spent time outside his bedroom and everything! Graves was pretty sure he even saw Newt eat something without him prodding the younger male at one point. He was so proud!

 

Every few days Graves requested permission to perform a projection spell on Newt so he could see if the child was OK.

 

“The baby kicked,” Newt had mumbled over dinner which Graves insisted that Newt eat with him. They were both extremely uncomfortable around each other and Graves had read that this was a nice way to get new pets well acquainted with one another- yes, he knew they weren’t pets but honestly at this point he was desperate.

 

“May I?” Graves questioned, slightly raising a hand and gesturing towards the couch.

 

“Of course.”

 

Newt and Graves got up once they’d finished their meal and headed towards the couch. Newt sat down and raised his shirt slightly. Graves crouched down and placed his hands on the younger man’s stomach, cupping them. He waited and waited.

 

A small bumping against his hand. His baby girl was kicking. He pressed his cheek against the bumping for some weird reason. He wanted to feel closer to the baby.

 

It was the first time in months that he’d kept his head this close to Newt’s stomach and he heard something. A little, soft, steady beating. The baby’s heartbeat.

 

He turned his head to press a kiss to the bump but stopped himself just in time.

 

What was happening to him?

 

He looked up and didn’t have to see Newt’s face to realize that the younger male was probably uncomfortable, but the look in his eyes as theirs met still managed to really push it in.

 

Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's short but when I reached that point in the chapter I realised that it would be wrong to continue the chapter past that point.


	43. Chapter 43

They were currently chasing a trafficking ring in New Mexico. Yes, Graves was on the other side of the country from his pregnant… person, he supposed, but dammit if he wasn’t grateful for any reason to be away from the man.

 

He dodged a hex thrown at him and deflected another one, casting a few curses of his own in between. Dammit it felt good to be back on the job.

 

He seriously hoped that Goldstein and Fontaine had finished getting the people out of the area as the building collapsed in on itself- a feeble attempt by one of the traffickers to destroy evidence, no doubt.

 

.

 

Call him an ungrateful bastard if you wanted to but _dammit_ Newt was grateful for Graves being gone. It gave him time to gather his wits and formulate an escape strategy.

 

He remembered some stuff, things that might help him. Sergey lived in a small town in Russia just west of Moscow. Sure there was no ways that the man would want him given that Newt already had a child from another man but hey- let’s be honest, he didn’t really stand a chance with the man anyways, right? They were just friends and nothing more.

 

Either way, he was confident that it would be safe there. For starters the village was underground where it had been re-located after several dark wizards tried to seize control of it, and it was also heavily guarded.

 

And from his relationship with Gelly- er, (he supposed he didn’t really have the jurisdiction to call the man that) Gellert, he knew that there was a very small population of his ex’s fanatics in Asia, so that would be great if Sergey didn’t want him around.

 

He was sure he'd be able to find a place to hide. He’d _obviously_ have to enlist some help in placing the Fidelius Charm on it, though he wasn’t sure who to ask, but otherwise he’d manage. Him and Judy.

 

They’d be fine. And besides, he was pretty sure he was safe from Gellert, after all, the man probably didn’t want anything to do with him, and, given his recent memory crisis, he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to have anything to do with the man himself. He didn’t _want_ to bring himself to think about it, scared it might trigger something harmful for the baby, but then again it wasn’t like he had much of a choice.

 

It wasn’t like the man had stolen a pencil from him or tripped him or something or insulted him, no, it was _way_ more fucked up than that. A man had kidnapped him. Had tortured him. Had _raped_ him. Had altered his memories. Had proceeded to lie to him. Had implanted his own set of ideologies into an injured mind. Had hidden him from his loved ones. He couldn’t really forgive him for all of that… but for some odd reason that made him cringe and curl his toes, he hadn’t stopped loving the man either.

 

It was weird and fucked up. Logically he knew it was a bad idea, he just didn’t see himself and Gelly- er, Gellert, getting romantic or anything, but his traitorous brain had somehow decided that it did care about what happened to the man. That it wanted him spared, not incarcerated. That it wanted him happy and not angry.

 

He was confident that perhaps in time the feelings would fade and he would be able to lead a normal life, perhaps when more memories poured in. But a dark part inside of him also knew that regardless of the lies and deception that had gotten him there, he had been very much in love with Gellert Grindelwald for, at the least, seven years of his time at Nurmengard. And worse, Gellert Grindelwald had been in love with him. And despite everything that happened, Newt would probably feel eternally guilty knowing that he had betrayed someone whom he had cared for that deeply.

 

Worse. He’d betrayed that person for another whom he had begun having feelings for. Someone who had exploited his own feelings in a successful attempt at escaping the prison. ~~Yes, he _had_ read the ‘secret’ report that Graves had written to Madam President.~~

 

And that left him feeling rather perplexed. On the one hand he felt anger at having his feelings exploited ~~for a second time~~ , on the other hand he still had some lingering feelings for Graves as much as he knew that there was no chance of that relationship happening either.

 

Graves didn’t care about him, end of story. He just wanted Judy. Why else would he have housed him? Newt may not have been the brightest wizard in Hogwarts- ow- but he wasn’t entirely stupid, he knew Graves’s real motives for having him cleared.

 

Some sick act of revenge, your enemy giving birth to your child after having manipulated them into getting out of Nurmengard… and yet somehow he didn’t really blame the man. He’d simply been trying to escape, and Newt was pretty sure if he’d been in similar circumstances he’d have wanted revenge too.

 

Which was why he knew that should Judy be born in New York, he’d likely never see her again. He was too far along to apparate without a few risks, he glanced at an old book on Graves’s coffee table (eugh, coffee! What was with Americans and their uncivilized drinks!?) and had an idea- that he quickly dismissed given that it was likely just as dangerous as apparating.

 

He glanced at the chimney and wondered briefly if Graves was connected to the Floo Network… unlikely, he was probably hiding Newt from his family and Newt felt certain that if they were able to apparate or Floo in he would have seen them by now.

 

He wasn’t sure how dangerous transfiguration would be, or a Polyjuice Potion.

 

However, there was _one_ other way. Where did Theseus say that the Americans had their own version of Diagon Alley in again?

 

.

 

They were spending the night in New Mexico. They were out celebrating, and a busty young lady was unabashedly flirting with Graves.

 

No-Majs may’ve had stricter social standers about pre-maritial sex, but to wizards it was rather common-place, and so he took her up on her suggestion to go to her apartment, noting that it had been a _long_ time since the last time he’d had sex, and he was starting to understand what Picquery meant when she said he got cranky without it.

 

She was a brunette, very beautiful. Green eyes, dimples, light freckles dusting her face.

 

It was a good night. A _very_ good night. And to Graves’s relief he didn’t think about Newt once…

 

Or at least he didn’t until after it was over, the girl curling into him to sleep, and him thinking about his unborn child in Newt who was probably home alone, bored out of his mind, possibly sick, possibly in labor- good gods he had to get back to New York tonight.

 

He snuck out as soon as she fell asleep and ran into the motel where his men were staying.

 

“Urgent message from Picquery,” he informed Tina and Lucas who… wait, why and how were they sharing a room? He’d have to look into that when he got home. “She needs me back in New York for help with a press conference tomorrow,” it wasn’t a lie, but they’d agreed to communicate via two-way mirror.

 

He apparated back into the general location of his apartment and walked like a madman to get to it…

 

Only it was empty.

 

Newt was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh


	44. Chapter 44

In the past hour Newt had cut his hair completely off and dressed in clothes that were as baggy as humanly possible in an attempt to hide the 5 cm bulge that was Judith (Evelyn?) Volga Graves. He had gotten aboard a bus despite the danger of one of Gellert’s followers seeing him and seeking revenge on him and, although he was not proud of it, he had used a few ‘accio’ spells to pickpocket a few (dozen) muggles until he had enough money to exchange into a few hundred Dragots. He had gone to Phoenix Avenue- which was located behind a grungy old building a kilometer away from Times Square

 

He was currently in a broom store checking out a model that, whilst not the _best_ , still managed to fly at about 80 miles an hour at top speed. He’d _obviously_ have to make stops but hey, he’d be out of the country in a few days so who gave a damn. He assumed that Graves would be expecting him to fly towards Europe, perhaps under the misconception that he would seek aid from his brother. That or Graves would expect that Newt had already left the country and would be scanning the ocean. This would give his true escape route the added advantage of some extra time.

 

And besides, how was Graves going to convince his Aurors that someone who supposedly was a ‘free man’ needed to be captured and brought back to him without disclosing his own dirty little secrets?

 

.

 

He called Theseus in. And Tina. And Lucas. Granted, the other two were under the impression that Newt was a potential witness in the trial against Grindelwald.

 

He would have called more people in on this, but he didn’t want to raise Picquery’s suspicions. And besides, with Grindelwald’s followers out there, he was pretty sure that raising the number of people aware about the situation wasn’t a good idea at all.

 

He wasn’t calling in his siblings and had asked Lucas to not mention it to anyone, explaining the threat of Grindelwald’s followers finding out. Lucas just gave him a really weird look and nodded.

 

He would be covering New York, Theseus would be covering in England (in the event that Newt had run away there), Tina and Lucas were working together to cover the Tri-state area, and he was covering the ‘outer regions’ of the Tri-state area, or so he’d told them, fully intending to scour the globe if that was what it took to find Newt.

 

He’d told Picquery he was taking leave for a while for ‘personal reasons’ and had appointed Abernathy in charge of MS for the next month. Tina and Lucas were chasing a ‘fugitive.’ Theseus didn’t need to take leave, because the assumption was that Newt was probably running to him.

 

.

 

Newt was flying to Illinois. He’d gotten a map from a travel store to plan his route out. New York to Illinois. Illinois to Montana. Montana to Alaska. And finally from Alaska to Russia! He’d be out of the country in 3 days. Out of the country and away from Graves.

 

.

 

“Have you seen a red-head in here, by any chance?” Tina ran around asking people.

 

Lucas was going around from store to store asking shopkeepers if they’d seen Newt.

 

They were keeping it discrete as Graves had asked them too, pointing out that Newt was wandless and if any of Grindelwald’s allies found out about him being out and about they would most likely harm him and his child.

 

Tina saw Lucas racing through the crowd towards her and ran towards him.

 

“An elf says he saw him and a shopkeeper says he bought a broom.”

 

“Are they sure it was him?”

 

“They say he had a British accent, besides, I was asking around for a pregnant male, just in case he’s a Metamorphmagus.”

 

“That’s brilliant,” she breathed.

 

“Yeah, let’s go and check around town to see if anyone else saw him.”

 

“You know, by running around New York pregnant, he’s breaking the International Statute,” she said, trying to keep up with Lucas as they walked back into the No-Maj world. “He ought to be prosecuted for it.”

 

“Yeah, but what’s Graves going to do? He’s smitten with the guy!”

 

“He- wait, what?”

 

“Yeah, Porcupine, it’s so obvious! Shame the guy’s pregnant with Grindelwald’s baby.”

 

“Yeah, the thought of Grindelwald reproducing is rather unpleasant, but back to Graves being in love with Scamander. Surely you can’t possibly believe that!?”

 

“Of course I do. Why else do you think he let Newt stay with him and barred his family visiting during that time? He cares about him. He visited him all the time in the hospital.”

 

“Yeah… I guess you have a point.”

 

“Of course I do. Now come on, Porcupine, let’s find out where Scamander went next.”

 

“Doesn’t the man at the broom store have anything we can track him with?”

 

“No, I asked. It was a pretty cheap broom that’d been lying in his shop for the past 8 years.”

 

“We should tell Graves.”

 

“Already done. I sent a paper airplane.”

 

“OK. Do you think we should visit your cousin?”

 

“Who? Margie? Why?”

 

“Well,” Tina produced a sock from her pocket. “Graves had bought Newt a few clothes- _obviously_ \- and I was thinking we could track him with this.”

 

“You’re brilliant, Tina,” he looked like he was about to say something else but quickly shut his mouth and coughed into his hand. “Well, uh, yeah, we should go. My apartment’s only a few blocks away, we can take the Floo Network from there.”

 

“Perfect.”

 

.

 

Graves had gotten Lucas’s message. Newt was flying. _Shit_. What if he went into labor whilst on the broom? What would happen to the child.

 

Breathe, a voice in his head soothed, remember when Margie was pregnant? She went into labor and it took her 17 hours before the hole was open wide enough for the baby to come out.

 

.

 

 

Graves had apparated all over the eastern half of the USA and _man_ was he tired! He hadn’t seen Newt anywhere, so either the young man was in the sky or somehow someway he'd managed to get out of the USA.

 

He checked into the nearest hotel and fell asleep as soon as his face hit the pillow. Sure he was powerful, but even on him it was too much of a feat to apparate into over 92 destinations.

 

.

 

Tina and Lucas arrived at Margie’s store and the young woman beamed brightly when she saw the pair.

 

“Lukey, Tina, what brings you on by?”

 

“Hey, Margie,” Lucas smiled, having agreed he’d do the talking since they were related. “We need your help tracking somebody on the run.”

 

“Sure! Hey, do you know if Percy’s OK? I haven’t seen or heard from him in close to two months.”

 

“Yeah, he’s fine, but he’s really gotten his hands full with this Grindelwald case.”

 

“I see. Well, anyways, do you have something to track this person with?”

 

“Yeah, Tina.” Tina held out the sock.

 

“Perfect. I’ll whip you up a tracking compass in a jiffy!” she smiled, grabbing a few potions and a board.

 

She placed the sock on the middle of the board and transfigured it into a needle, before pouring the four potions on it and muttering something unintelligible under her breath. The board glowed blue and suddenly the needle swung south-west of where they were.

 

“Thanks, Margie,” Lucas winked. “How much do we owe you?”

 

“7 Dragots,” she smiled, it would cover the ingredients for replacement potions as well as a board.

 

“Thanks,” he smiled, paying her, grabbing Tina’s hand, and apparating out of there.

 

.

 

Graves blinked when he got the next message.

 

_Meet us at Orlando’s at 08:00. We have something that might help!_

He knew which Orlando’s, of course he did. There were 62 Auror meet-ups in the USA, Orlando’s was the one they used in Pennsylvania. He groaned. That was, like, a thousand miles back. Dammit!

 

He groaned- you know what, fuck the law, OK, and yes he did hear himself. He was port-keying back! He accioed over a pillow (a _nice_ pillow), mulled over the coordinates whilst muttering a spell, and was zapped out of there.

 

He appeared 3 steps away from Orlando’s. It was 15 minutes to 08:00. He went in and sat down. He ordered an omelette for him and one for Lucas, and a bacon cheeseburger for Tina, who always looked underfed, as well as a pot of coffee. He figured it was the least they could do given that they were helping him look for Newt.

 

A few minutes later Tina and Lucas arrived. They sat down beside Graves in a booth, glanced to their left and right, and both handed him something- Lucas a shrunken board with a needle on it and Tina a piece of paper bewitched to only allow the intended viewer’s eyes to read the message.

 

_It’s a compass to find Newt. ~~Lu **k** Lucas ~~ Fontaine and I added a few enchantments to it so that you could find the distance you need to travel and simply apparate there. We decided to give this to you because we figured you were probably the one who wanted to see Newt first._

That was awfully sweet. Graves looked up and nodded not noticing the tears welling up in his eyes.

 

“Thank you,” he coughed. “I’m leaving now, the food’s paid for. Remember, leave at least 15 minutes after me to avoid being noticed.”

 

He walked out, into the alley, and apparated out.


	45. Chapter 45

It was the second night since Newt had left and he’d touched down into Montana, ready to check into a motel.

 

Suddenly he was grabbed by the arms and magically bound. He glanced up at his assailant and was promptly punched in the jaw for ‘daring’ to do so. But no matter, he knew the man well enough.

 

Donavin. _Fucking Donavin_.

 

He knelt down to Newt, a knife in his hand. “So, bitch running away, huh? Saving your own skin after you turned your master in eh? Always thought Gellert could do _much_ better than you.”

 

Keep. Calm. Your baby is at stake here.

 

“And what’s this? Gellert’s little slut got knocked up, eh? Well, Gellert’s gonna thank us when we rip the baby out of this ugly whore, huh?” The two men with him laughed. He recognized Kosta but not the other guy.

 

It then struck him that Donavin had no clue that the baby wasn’t Grindelwald’s. he might have a chance at reasoning with him.

 

“But first, a little payback from our master. If you’re going to be a disobedient slut I guess we ought treat you like one, Mark.”

 

The man Newt didn’t know began to pull down his pants, Pickett was jumping out of Newt’s collar and about to do some very non-vegetarian things to said man, and he was freaking out up until he saw a red light send him flying back and the wands in the other two men’s hands fly away.

 

Newt turned to face his savior and the minute they locked eyes Newt’s stomach dropped as a grim feeling settled over him. Or should he say a _grave_ feeling given who it was.

 

Graves bent down, that kind face he had whenever he dealt with victims of crime instinctively making it’s way across his face. He placed a hand on Newt’s stomach and asked “Are you alright?”

 

“Yes, thank you?”

 

“What are you doing here, Graves?” Donavin growled. “Leave, this doesn’t concern you.”

 

“Oh, I believe it does,” Graves bit back. “What on earth were you doing to him? He’s an innocent civilian.”

 

“Innocent!?” Donavin threw back his head laughing. “He’s a traitorous little _slut_ and we’re merely trying to recover what belongs to our Master, but sure you can call him innocent if it helps.”

 

 

“What belongs to your Master?”

 

“Grindelwald’s baby,” Donavin pointed at Newt’s midsection.

 

“That’s _my_ baby,” Graves growled, a possessive rage filling him. “Not Grindelwald’s, or maybe you didn’t know that about your master. In addition to being a lousy lover he was also a bit of a cuckold prior to his arrest!”

 

Donavin blinked and Newt covered his mouth in shock. He’d-he’d never, oh gods, and oh Graves and, oh shit! That was. That was something that just- oh wow.

 

And then, Donavin turned that wicked smile back on Newt. “I fucking knew you were a _slut_! Little whore sleeping his way across Nurmengard!” he turned towards Graves. “Are you sure it’s yours? I wouldn’t take this little whore’s word for it, even with a dating spell you can’t be certain you’re the only one he spread his legs for that day and I’m willing that baby will be just like it’s harlot of a mother. The only purpose his mouth serves is as a-” and then Donavin made a choking sound.

 

Gasping, Newt turned to look at Graves who was staring intensely at the man before them. Newt looked back in time to see Donavin’s body crumple to the ground and his remaining accomplice race off into the night.

 

Graves turned to Newt coolly, as though nothing had happened, and extended a hand. “Come, Newt. Let’s find a hotel to spend the night, we’ll ride the train back tomorrow.”

 

.

 

When they got back to the motel Graves turned to Newt. “What were you thinking?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“They could have hurt you! They could have hurt Judith!”

 

“I- how did you know I was going to name her Judith!?”

 

“I heard you in your sleep,” Graves was a damn good liar, and thankfully despite his shaken state he managed to maintain one of his most practiced traits.

 

“I would have been fine,” Newt insisted.

 

“You would have been raped! Why did you leave?”

 

Should he tell Graves? It was personal, sure, and it hurt to think about the fact that Graves’s plan may be to never allow Newt to see Judith, but he hadn’t slept in three days out of the fear of losing his unborn child and with a broken voice he said, defeated. “I-I didn’t want you t-t-to take her aw-away from me.”

 

Graves hadn’t expected that. “Wha-what do you mean take her away? Who?” but even as those words left his mouth he knew _exactly_ who Newt was referring to. And he couldn’t exactly play all innocent either, he supposed. Initially he wasn’t going to let Newt see the child, but he’d erased that idea from his brain within minutes of thinking of it! Then again, he thought guiltily, he'd pictured father-daughter moments with Jude _plenty_ of times and he couldn’t recall a single fantasy that had Newt with them in it. But why should it have? The two had barely exchanged 10 sentences since Newt had broken him out of Nurmengard! And even then, it didn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t _want_ Newt to be part of the picture, right? Definitely didn’t mean that Newt wasn’t going to be a part of the picture. He was- Graves realized suddenly- he was Jude’s mother, and she was every bit as much Newt’s baby as she was Graves’s. And he’d been neglectful of that for a very long time, hadn’t he?

 

Newt didn’t meet his eyes. “Newt, I would _never_ separate you from Jude,” he walked over to Newt and saw the younger male flinch. Right, the events of the night weren’t entirely ideal, he thought, trying to push away the slight hurt he felt at it.

 

Newt still neglected to say anything. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t involve you as much as I should have. It’s just- it’s been hard, OK. I didn’t think it would be this hard. Heck- when we first had sex I hadn’t even thought of this being a possibility because to my knowledge it didn’t run in your blood! And then there was the break out and you took that Cruciatus curse for me and I felt really guilty. And then you fell into multiple comas and there were health issues- and then you started _remembering!_ Newt. I know this has been hard on you, it’s been hard for me too, OK. And I’m sorry that you thought you had to run away if you ever wanted to see Jude after she was born.”

 

Newt still wasn’t talking, but his head was down and from Graves’s angle he could see Newt’s cheeks looking a bit damp.

 

He continued. “And I know it’s not really all that safe to talk about. But eventually I would- um, like to know for, er, our investigation, what-what happened between you and, well, _him_. Not that you need to worry for now, of course, I-”

 

“I love him, you know. I still do.”

 

“What?”

 

“Grindelwald,” Newt finally looked up. “I still love him. I still _care_ about him. I still _worry_ about him.”

 

“Newt…” Graves frowned.

 

“I still have feelings for him. I know what he did, I know what happened, Percival, I _do_ remember,” Newt hesitated. “But despite all of that I still love him.”

 

Graves sighed. “OK, alright,” there’d be time for an argument over that later. “Well, you’re going to need to get some sleep for tomorrow.”

 

“What about you?” he questioned when he saw Graves making no move to slip into bed.

 

“I’m going to lay a few wards over the place first,” Graves commented. “Sleep, Newt.”

 

Newt sighed pulling himself into the comfortable hotel bed and for the first time in a long time he had a good night’s sleep.

 

.

 

When he woke up he saw Graves sitting in the armchair in the corner, a kettle pouring coffee into a mug in front of Graves.

 

Newt glanced at the bed next to him, which appeared to be unslept in. “You never went to bed,” it was more of an accusation than a question.

 

“I wanted to keep watch. Just in case.” Just in case.

 

“What about the wards?”

 

“Well it’s not like I could just up and place the Fidelius charm on the room, now could I,” Graves replied, passive-aggressively.

 

“You should’ve woken me up then, we could’ve taken turns.”

 

“You need to rest.” You have our baby in you. “You’ve been flying for two days.”

 

“How did you find me?”

 

“My sister is a particularly crafty potion maker. She managed to conjure up a compass potion and we used one of your old socks to track you.”

 

Fuck.

 

“What do you plan on doing, after Jude is born, I mean?” Graves

 

“Oh,” Newt blushed. “Well, er, prior to the war I’d just finished my NEWTs and was about to become a magizoologist.”

 

“A what?”

 

Newt reached into his collar and withdrew Pickett who’d fallen asleep. “They study magical creatures.”

 

“Oh,” Graves frowned. “Why on earth would you want to do that?”

 

“To educate people.”

 

“On what? The different ways to kill them?”

 

Newt made a strangled sound. “Heavens no- the opposite if anything! I was really happy about going back home to England after the war because I’d gotten a post in the Ministry of Magic in the Beast Division.”

 

Wow, Graves thought, Beast Division, it sounded cool despite how dorky it probably was.

 

“Oh, OK then,” Graves frowned. But there was no way on earth that the Ministry of Magic would hire Newt now. He didn’t want to crush Newt’s dream, but he was a pretty much known accomplice of Grindelwald, even though he hadn’t actually consented to it. “What about Grindelwald.”

 

Newt frowned. “What about him?”

 

“Well, we can try him, sure, but there’s no doubt about the fact that he’ll escape,” Graves pointed out. “Won’t you want to be with him.”

 

“Maybe, I don’t know. But even if I did I doubt it would happen. I’ve betrayed him too much,” Newt looked all sad again.

 

Graves almost took him into his arms. Almost.

 

“Our train leaves at 2, it’s a five day journey.”

 

“OK.”


	46. Chapter 46

The train ride back was pretty quiet. The pair didn’t really talk too much despite Graves’s conscious effort to try and feel more welcome.

 

Well. It was _mostly_ quiet anyways. Because three days into the trip Newt’s water broke.

 

Newt got up and groaned, frowning. He’d been feeling a little uncomfortable the night before, but waking up he realized that he was having contractions.

 

 _OK, breathe_ , he thought _, It takes a while to give birth, you have plenty of time to sneak away if you want_. He glanced at Graves. _But what’s the point if he can track you, though?_

 

In the end he decided laying back in his bed was probably the best solution, at least until Graves woke up. Meanwhile a few dozen thoughts flooded his mind.

 

_Holy fuck, we’re not even eight months along yet, how is this happening!?_

_Dammit this really feels uncomfortable._

_How far apart are these contractions, I remember that Susan said they had to be like 5 minutes apart to call a doctor._

He frowned. His were pretty far apart though, it was like, once every twenty or so minutes. He glanced out of the window, it was still too early to be up. He’d deal with it in the morning.

 

.

 

After 20 minutes he _finally_ managed to fall asleep. Unfortunately, he thought several hours later when he arose, that no longer seemed to be an option.

 

The train carriage they were in was dark but Newt knew that Graves was no longer in the carriage just like he knew the only reason it was still dark was because Graves had left the curtains closed.

 

He took a deep breath and struggled to make his way to the nearest clock which was at the end of the hallway of the train. A small, dainty little thing.

 

“ _Accio_ ,” Newt summoned the clock to him and disappeared back into the room.

 

He timed the contractions and blanched. Seven minutes. He was having one every seven minutes! What the hell!? He was no expert on childbirth but he was pretty sure that it didn’t progress this fast!

 

Janet had mentioned that she’d taken nearly 2 days when she delivered Sophie! He hadn’t wanted Judy to be born in the USA, but if she was going to be born on anything he’d _definitely_ not wanted it to be on a train! He was fine with New York at this point.

 

He cursed. Graves usually spent time ‘patrolling the train’ or avoiding him but hey he supposed that it was up to interpretation.

 

He couldn’t leave the room, someone would see him. Tears welled in his eyes. He’d never been this scared. _Never_. And- and

 

And yeah, he remembered _everything_. He hadn’t wanted to scare anyone by revealing it, but he could completely recount every single thing that had happened to him since he had been captured.

 

 _Breathe_ , he thought, wishing he had a wand. Regretfully the only spells at his disposal were the ones he could do wandless and there weren’t very many of those.

 

He steadied himself and lay down on the floor. He spread his legs out a bit, which seemed to help alleviate some of the discomfort.

 

A shuffling movement on his collar. Pickett, of course!

 

The bowtruckle looked anxious and began to pace up and down Newt’s chest.

 

“P-Pickett,” Newt breathed. “I-I need your help, I need you to get Graves!” urgh, contraction.

 

The small green creature chirped, stroked Newt’s cheek comfortingly, and raced off to go and find Graves.

 

He summoned a pillow to him, his head was getting rather uncomfortable on the floor. He briefly wondered if it would be possible to summon the baby out of him. That would be nice.

 

 _Urgh!!!!_ Where was Graves!? He tried to steady his breathing but damn was it hard. He turned his fist into a ball.

 

Wait. why was he still wearing pants? He groaned. It had been a pain in the ass to remove his pants ever since he’d started the 7th month- or as he liked to call it the month the baby decided to come out of hiding, given how little his belly bulged.

 

If he could stand up or sit or crouch or something he was certain that he could get the pants off, but he was currently struggling not to scream and trying to spread his legs wider and wider and wider, eventually moving into a position where his knees were bent and he was in an awkward sort of squat, wherein his legs were in the right position but his back was on the floor.

 

He bent down trying to grab at the hem of his pants but his obtruding stomach made it a bit of a challenge. _Depulso_ he thought, making a motion with his hands. Nothing. ‘ _Depulso_ ,’ he grit out making the same motion with his hands. Nothing. Fuck. He supposed wandless magic would do him no good here. He began fidgeting with his legs and trying even harder to try and at the very least unbutton his legs. Urgh! He’d sent Picket away- he glanced at the clock- about half an hour ago. And the contractions were becoming more and more frequent. What the fuck Judy!? Stay in your home! I have lovingly taken care of you for seven months why are you so godsdamned impatient!?

 

He looked at the clock and blanched. His contractions were now five minutes apart. Wasn’t the first birth supposed to take longer? He was pretty fucking sure it was supposed to take longer!

 

Deep breath. _Deep **breath**_.

 

.

 

Graves was in the dining cart when Pickett found him. He was having a slightly early lunch and debating what to bring back for Newt. The guy was so scrawny Graves almost felt bad for him. Almost.

 

Graves frowned when he saw the tiny green beast whom Newt fondly referred to as ‘Pickett.’

 

“What’re you doing here, little guy?” he normally wasn’t fond of magical creatures due to their propensity to destroy New York- er, to run around New York, but this guy was an exception. The little green bowtruckle crawled up an offered finger which Graves raised to his face.

 

Haha, funny little green creature, waving his little stick-like lock-picker arms.

 

“Where’s Newt?” he frowned. Newt shouldn’t be up and about and there was no other reason that Pickett would leave the man.

 

Unless… Unless Newt was trying to escape again. he had to go and find him.

 

.

 

Newt was in tears. It hurt so fucking much! He wasn’t sure how well his silencing charm would work, so to avoid muggle detection he’d taken off his sock and stuffed it in his mouth. _Urgh!_ This child better be worth it!

 

The door opened. Fucking finally!

 

“New- _Newt!_ ” no shit Sherlock.

 

“I-I’m. _Urgh!_ I’m experiencing some contractions. I think I may be going into labor.”

 

“I’m sure you’re well past that,” Graves said, rushing to Newt’s side. “We need to stop this train and get medical help.”

 

“I-I’m not sure there's- _urgh_ \- enough time! It’s been progressing quite rapidly,” Newt rambled.

 

“Wait,” Graves stopped him, “When did this start?”

 

“Um, a-a few hours ago, why?”

 

Graves cursed. “Damn it, Newt. You should have said something.”

 

“I thought it would- _aah!­_ I thought that it would take longer than this,” Newt’s voice erupted into shallow pants and he clutched his stomach, spreading his legs wider. Oh gods, it felt like he had diarrhea.

 

Graves cast a silencing charm on the door and with an out of character sort of gentleness, he moved Newt so that the young male was propped up in a more comfortable position, summoning cushions so the younger male wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.

 

“Ssh, Newt,” Graves soothed. “Don’t worry. We’ll get through this together, trust me, you and Judith will be fine.”


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, surprise… I'm not dead.

In the end it had taken Judith a grand total of 1 day and 13 hours to be born.

 

Funny how labor passes quickly for those first few stages and goes slower than a tortoise for the rest… thanks a fucking lot, nature.

 

Judith Evelyn Volga… Graves smiled as he looked at the mother and baby curled up together on the bottom bunk. Scamander, he decided. Judith Evelyn Volga Scamander… it’d be cruel to separate the two for a grudge he held against Scamander… a grudge based off of a set of circumstances that weren’t entirely in either of their control.

 

.

 

The Mediwitch had declared Newt of sound mind and body- someone was making a quick recovery.

 

It was finally time for Newt to meet Theseus, Graves thought. Judith was out of harms’ way, and it’d be a nagging pest in the back of Newt’s mind if he never got to see his brother.

 

So, with Jude asleep, Graves took Newt’s hand and sidelong apparated them into the Woolworth building. Theseus was waiting for them in an interrogation room, there was a Mediwitch present should things go south.

 

And south they did go. Newt took one look into his brother’s eyes and collapsed onto the floor, convulsing.

 

“I think he’s having a seizure!” Graves shouted to the Mediwitch, but that was just a blurred sound to Newt.

 

A blurred sound amongst a series of blurred sounds… blurred people… blurred lights… blurred-blurred?

 

Suddenly, the room wasn’t blurry anymore. He was on some foreign field… a foreign field that felt familiar, almost home-like.

 

He felt small-er, smaller. He was looking at a boy a bit older than him. What? Two? Three years? Maybe four…

 

“When will you be back?” he heard himself say.

 

“Soon.”

 

“I want to join you.”

 

“The muggles won’t let an underage boy join the war effort.”

 

He felt sad, though he didn’t know why per say.

 

“Hey, cheer up little one. From what I hear there’s a new division on the rise, secret set up by the Ministry. They're going to be training dragons to fight on the Eastern Front.”

 

He felt himself get exvited. “Dragons!?”

 

“Yes. You’ll be with me, soon. I’ve got to go now, take care of mum and dad.”

 

“Bye, ‘Seus,” he felt sad again.

 

“Bye, Newt.”

 

The scene changed, he was surrounded by numerous fire-breathing beasts.

 

“Watch yourself!” he heard a voice call. He didn’t know why, but he vaguely registered that voice as belonging to a Mister John Weasley. “They’re dangerous critters- they’ll kill you if you’re not careful… hell, they’ll kill you if you _are_ careful.”

 

_OK_ , he thought _, I can do this. I just need to train this dragon to prove myself… to prove that you don’t need violence to get them to listen._

 

“Heeere, Snowflake-Snowlfake-Snowflake, atta girl,” he smiled, as the Dragon came towards him. “That’s right, mommy’s little precious… here, have some goat. Yes! Good girl,” he stroked the dragon’s neck affectionately. “You need all the food you can get so that you can grow strong and take down those nasty Germans, now don’t you? Yes you do…” he kissed the tip of the Dragon’s nose and was promptly awarded by a tongue bath… or what the ginormous creature would consider a playful lick.

 

The scene changed, and snowflake was dead.

 

The scene changed again. They were clearing up camp. He was going home. Finally. He was going back to see Theseus.

 

He turned back to the campsite to see if there was anything missing. Oh well, better safe than sorry, he thought as he raced across the rocks and slopes to make sure that they hadn’t forgotten anything… not like he got to check, he was hit with a knockout spell as soon as he arrived on the grounds.

 

This time he was in a dark room… he gasped. He recognized the design of the walls and ceilings anywhere- not to mention that floor… they were in Nurmengard…

 

“Where _is_ he!?” His captors growled, yanking his hair and doing all sorts of terrible things to him.

 

And then the terrible things _worsened_ and- and no… oh gods above, anything but that!

 

And then-he felt his heart do tumble-turns- And then he didn’t feel so good… And then he was removed from that nasty block and told by the nurse lady- whom he recognized as Emma- that he was-that he was…

 

Even though he knew that it wasn’t really him anymore, he still felt his stomach drop. All those times… all those times that Gelly-er, Gellert had said he didn’t want children yet… and here he was, probably only about twenty and pregnant with Gellert- _Grindelwald’s…_ Grindelwald’s child?

 

He heard a voice. Grindelwald. _Don’t worry, everything’s going to be alright… shh, just relax, darling. Everything will be OK, you’re coming to live with me now, my sweet. I’m going to make sure you’re fine, I’m going to make sure your baby is fine, don’t worry, I’ll protect you_.

 

And for the first time in a long time he felt safe, let himself get lulled into a state of calmness… a-and love, and growing attraction, and fondness. Let the fear ebb away slowly into comfort…

 

He was in a dark room, on a bed. He heard screams. They were his own. He felt scared. If Newt had to guess at that moment, he’d say that he was having a nightmare.

 

Grindelwald- _no, no_ , a voice in his head chided him, _we love him. He’s our Gellert…_ \- got up and woke him up. “Newt, Newt, are you alright? Sweetling it’s just a d- oh, oh gods!” He felt wet for some odd reason. He didn’t know why.

 

Had he wet himself? No, it felt thicker than urine. Was it-could it? _No_ …

 

He was in a bright room. He felt empty. Emptier than he’d been in the past two flashbacks. He didn’t need someone to _tell_ him that he’d had a miscarriage, the bloody clothes he’d been stripped of told him enough.

 

He felt broken. He was crying, miserable. He felt time pass, felt himself get more and more miserable… more and more broken. Felt Gellert try to comfort him. Why? He’d failed them. He’d lost their baby. Newt was back to being nothing more than a prisoner to him now, surely.

 

And then-and then one night he was hysterical. He had finally found something sharp enough to take his life with and had seized the opportunity.

 

When he next awoke he was back in that hospital room with Emma and Gellert.

 

“… obliviate him,” he heard. “The combined stress of his torture and losing the child have ruined him. He needs to forget.”

 

“Won’t he just remember again? It was very traumatic.”

 

“If you let him keep on like this, eventually he’ll just go insane. But I know of a potion that should keep the effects of the _Obliviate_ working, provided he take it every few weeks… shall we say once a month?”

 

“Won’t it have any long-term health effects?”

 

“It’s better than letting him go on like this.”

 

And then… and then he didn’t feel so bad anymore…

 

.

 

Newt woke up with a gasp, clutching himself instantaneously. He’d woken up in the Medical Ward of MACUSA enough times that he knew where he was immediately and didn’t panic.

 

He sat up and immediately there was a flurry of movement around him as nearby attendants forced him back onto his bed.

 

The Nurse who had been attending to him since he’d first arrived at HQ, Margarine, strode up to him. She cast a quick spell over him that did gods know what, and then nodded to her colleagues. They let him go.

 

She turned her attention back to him. “My my, Mr. Scamander. You’ve given us all quite a scare- out for _eleven_ _hours!_ ” She gave a brief pause. “Your vitals all seem normal. Graves is waiting for you with your brother. I’ve been instructed to accompany you to them lest you have a… less than desired reaction to meeting him. Again.”

 

“My-my… where’s Judy?”

 

“Do you mean the baby? I’m afraid that I’m unable to answer that, as I am not her nurse. However, I do believe that she was transferred to some local hospital- St. Paul’s or something of the sorts- to undergo some routine check-ups so we may be certain that she is truly in good condition. However, if they finished early then there is the possibility that either your brother or Mr. Graves has taken her home.”

 

Newt nodded, dimly. As long as his daughter was safe he was fine.

 

When he saw Theseus again, he didn’t faint. No. His head had never felt clearer.

 

Instead, when he saw his war-hero older brother, a man a good decade older than the last time he’d seen him, Newt ran to him, flung his arms around him and cried and cried and cried.

 

And when Theseus reciprocated on the hug, despite the tears of both men, for the first time in a long time everything felt as though it could be alright for Newt. All the pain, all the suffering vanished once he was in his big brother’s arms.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps I'll write the birthing scene at some later point, but for now this is it. I doubt that this'll be more than two more chapters (including an epilogue).
> 
> Maybe I'll write a small side story on Graves and Newts' lives after all of this, how they finally forgive each other, but that will definitely not be in this fic.
> 
> Thanks to the people who are still reading this… it can not have been easy.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~(Also- just out of curiosity, are there any Potterheads out there who ship Regulus Black and Evan Rosier? It's not just me, right?)~~


	48. Chapter 48

All in all, Judy turned out to be a perfectly normal, healthy, happy baby girl.

 

She weighed in at 3.5kg (he couldn’t remember what those ridiculous American units were, only that he’d asked for a conversion), she had soft skin and her hair was an unruly Auburn tangle.

 

She had brown eyes, _like Percival_ , Newt thought, and a slim frame, _like me._

 

She cried. A _lot_ , but seemed to be better whenever Newt was holding her. Though that was mainly because she was usually feeding when he held her. That girl had an _apetite_!

 

He and Graves were on much better terms. They even _greeted_ each other! Without the awkwardness!

 

The man was an interesting fellow. They had Theseus with them, and whenever Graves wasn’t around, Theseus didn’t hesitate to fill him in on all of the impressive things the man had done- in addition to what had happened in the world since Newt’s capture.

 

Newt had felt incredibly guilty, knowing that he had been on the other side of things, helping the Dark Wizards fight against his brother’s forces.

 

He was on a lot of medication. The Mediwitches had prescribed him an ounce of Gillyweed mixed in with Doxy Honey and crushed Oleander petals- aka, a hella-strong anti-depressant.

 

It was supposedly due to the newfound information that Newt had, the brutal period he had spent in the dungeons in Nurmengard at the mercy of Grindelwald and his men plus the miscarriage was deemed ‘too traumatic’ for Newt to handle, and he was advised to see a Legilimens thrice weekly so that he could slowly come off of the meds.

 

Newt personally thought that it was stupid- yes he was sad about what had happened, but he doubted that it would lead to depression. Still, he’d been trained in Nurmengard to never disagree with a Healer. Bad things happened when you disagreed with a Healer.

 

He needed to find a way back to England. That was where his family was, where he’d feel safe.

 

But even he knew that Percival Graves was not going to let him leave the country- not permanently and _certainly_ not with Judy.

 

He had so much to do now that his life was back on track. He’d remembered his burning desire to be a magizoologist, his fascination with some girl named ‘Leta’- followed quickly by the memory that she’d nearly gotten him expelled. He remembered going to the pumpkin patch with Theseus one Halloween and summoning a zombie which scared some muggle children… he remembered the spanking they’d both gotten after that by their mum.

 

He remembered their father, a tall, strong, stoic man who worked as an Auror for the ministry. Remembered being slightly scared of him, remembered Theseus _adoring_ him… according to Theseus he’d died a year after Newt had gone missing from heart-failure.

 

Their mum was still alive though. Theseus mentioned that she was anxiously waiting to come and visit. Graves had offered to set up a portkey to take her from the Ministry to MACUSA on Saturday.

 

He had no idea what he was going to tell her about Judy. Or did she already know? How much _did_ she know about what had happened in Nurmengard? Did she even know about Nurmengard?

 

.

 

Judith Scamander walked briskly beside her eldest son through the doors of the MACUSA and took his hand as they apparated into Graves’s apartment. Judith thought that it was sweet that her son’s friend was willing to house him and her baby boy. The child she’d last seen aged eighteen when he’d been old enough to join the war by muggle standards.

 

She saw him sitting on the couch. She knew him of course. Fiery hair, blue eyes, adorable smile. Her baby hadn’t changed!

 

She didn’t even realize that she was crying as she rushed forwards to give him a hug. But she didn’t. She stopped just a few centimetres shy of him and noticed a baby sleeping in his lap.

 

“Mum?” he whispered.

 

“Newt,” she confirmed. “My-I-h-how did you.. wh-who is this?”

 

“Mum. This is Judy… your granddaughter.”

 

Judith collapsed onto the floor. She’s known that Grindelwald had held her baby captive- but never in a _million years_ did she think that he’d fall pregnant with that bastard’s child.

 

“My baby boy,” she whispered. “Is-is she _his_?”

 

“Grindelwald’s? No,” Theseus came up behind is mother and laid a consoling hand on her shoulder. “The baby is Graves’s.”

 

“What!?”

 

Graves was supposed to be _helping_ them, not having _sex_ with them!

 

“It happened in Nurmengard,” Newt whispered. “It wasn’t his fault- don’t worry, mum. I’ll explain everything in due time.”

 

“Oh Newt!” she sobbed, “My poor baby!”

 

“Shh, mum,” Theseus soothed. “He’s OK now, don’t worry. And look- look at your beautiful baby grand daughter! She even bears your name!”

 

That didn’t stop their mother’s tears though. Her poor baby- held by that-that _madman_ for nearly a decade- during which the reports say he was _raped_! **_Repeatedly_**! Additionally, he’d been held under a potion, and was _pregnant_ and had given birth!

 

If MACUSA had pressed charges against Newt, she would have lost it.

 

Then the baby started crying.

 

“Shhh, shhh,” Newt soothed. “Mum,” he said, softly. “Don’t worry, I’m fine- but please try and be happy. You’re upsetting Judy.”

 

“Sorry,” she sniffed, staring into her grand-daughter’s eyes, brown and beautiful, and feeling herself well up just a little more. _Theseus was supposed to be the one to give me my first grandbaby._

“H-hello, Judith,” Mrs. Scamander greeted. “I-I’m your grandmother. Pardon, I don’t look quite as unwell usually, I’m just getting over a bit of shock. You’re very lucky to have such a loving mummy. He’s been through a lot, you know. Take-take care of him.”

 

.

 

In the end, Judith Scamander hadn’t been able to spend more than a week in New York. The groundskeeper from their estate had called- the Hippogriffs were out of control again.

 

And now, Graves sighed. And now it was time to come clean to _his_ family.

 

“I just don’t know what to tell them- I don’t want them to _hate him_ , but they already know some of the details about Nurmengard, and if they associate Newt with that…”

 

“Hey,” Theseus soothed. “It’s OK, just… just warm them into it.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Explain to them… explain to them bits and pieces of what you learned in regards to Newt. If you generate a sense of sympathy towards him then they're less likely to hate him.”

 

“So you think they’ll hate him?” Graves frowned.

 

“Oh, without a doubt,” Theseus looked grim. “But you have to come clean- and you can’t just expect them _accept_ that you’ve got this new baby from out of nowhere.”

 

“I know, I just- I wish this was easier.”

 

“At least you weren’t there when _my_ mother found out.”

 

“That bad, huh?”

 

“She made _Judy_ cry!”

 

“You're joking.”

 

“I wish.”

 

“Well, the one upside,” Graves smiled morbidly. “My mother would probably have made Jude cry either way.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter Newt'll meet Graves's family, and then the aftermath will be posted. Thank you so much to everyone who has read this story so far! I love you guys!


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